Towards an integrated approach to food engineering: Structure-function relationships and convective drying

Abstract

Food engineering is a multidisciplinary activity in which many subjects converge and play important roles. Preparation of foodstuffs for consumption for a growing and wide range of needs should include novel approaches to product development, engineering and equipment design, as well as the usage of advanced algorithms for establishing operating conditions of emerging processing technologies such as high hydrostatic pressure and pulsed electric fields rigs. The knowledge base for achieving reasonable product engineered processing includes, in addition to traditional physical and chemical backgrounds, advanced non-linear dynamics, solid state physics, biotechnology, nanoscience and nanotechnology and novel interpretation of traditional concepts such as interfaces, as well as computer vision tools and product architecture. All of these components of an integrated approach to food engineering play a key role on the production of successful foodstuffs through innovation; thirty years ago, the food industry directed attention to production, whereas at present much more attention has been given to the manufacture of healthy, more natural, fresher, easier to use and tastier products with declared beneficial attributes. This tendency has increased the speed at which innovation in food industrial activities is carried out, and the time of product development has decreased from 10 years in 1970s to 2 years in the year 2000 (Bruin and Jongen, 2003).