Food Process Engineering: The Last 25 Years and Challenges Ahead

In the first part of this contribution, an overview is given of some of the main developments in food process engineering in the last 25 years of the 20th century. This overview is, of course, colored by the personal experience of the authors, but a sincere effort was made to maintain a general perspective. Topics that will be briefly discussed are: progress in understanding how to control food microstructure formation during processing, separation processes, conversion processes and stabilization processes, progress in flavor technology and understanding of flavor retention during processing and release. In the 2nd part, in our view, the most exiting future developments are briefly discussed. The major items here are: processing requirements for functional foods, integrated process design approaches, application of novel'fields'in food processes,'precision'processing, supply chain approaches to food manufacturing, and more.