Sustainable Processing in Food Manufacturing

This review focuses on the technical side of sustainable food processing: the efficiency of the conversion of raw materials into foods that are offered to consumers. Both incremental and stepwise technological developments take place at the same time. Unit operations continue to gradually become more efficient, and system assessment tools such as pinch technology help to optimize processing systems. Use of nonthermal, electrically driven processes reduces degradation of food components and enables more complete use of raw materials. Mild processing methods such as dry fractionation and hybrid dry-wet separations enable better quality of all the components that are isolated from a raw material. Full transition to mild refining and functionality-oriented product formulation dramatically reduces the environmental impact of the complete production chain but requires a process system redesign. The use of biotechnology to produce food ingredients using cell factories is an exciting development that could revolutionize the way we produce foods.