What is Food Science?

The Institute of Food Technologists defines food science as "the discipline in which the engineering, biological, and physical sciences are used to study the nature of foods, the causes of deterioration, the principles underlying food processing, and the improvement of foods for the consuming public".

Food Science is still a relatively new and growing discipline, brought about principally as a response to the social changes happening in North America and different parts of the developed world. The food business, that originally provided only primary product for final preparation within the home, finds itself responding to market demands for additional refined, sophisticated, and convenient product. The demand for easy to organize, convenience foods, poses major scientific and technological challenges that can not be met while not highly trained scientists capable of understanding the complex chemistry/biochemistry of food systems and information of the ways to preserve them. This increased reliance of society on ready-to-eat foods has led to larger responsibility for processors in terms of quality, safety and nutrition. in order to make sure high quality and competitive product, scientific principles and new technologies are being applied to food producing and the body of knowledge needed has become that discipline known as Food Science.