We eat food for many reasons. When we are hungry, we eat. We also eat because we enjoy eating things like sweets or chips. When we celebrate, we eat. We may celebrate our victory or birthday. Even during rituals like cultural or religious, we eat. So humans are different from animals who eat only when they are hungry.
We can eat food in different ways and forms. We can eat ripe mango or banana, that is very flavourful, just after peeling as such. We can also make a pulp of the fruit and add sugar & cream and freeze it and eat as ice cream. We can add water and make juice. There are many other products we can make out of fruit like cake, jam, spread, dried fruit etc. So there are many ways in which we can eat food. Fruits like mango are seasonal, so in order to enjoy it when they are not available fresh, we can make many products that last for a long time. Such foods like meat, eggs, milk, vegetables and fruit, are all prone to spoilage. These need to be consumed soon or should be processed and/or converted into different products for later consumption. Fish and fruits are dried. Vegetables and meat are frozen. Milk is pasteurised and chilled for storage of a few days. For longer storage it needs to be concentrated and canned or may be dried to powder. There are various products that are made from foods. Fish, meat and vegetables could be pickled while fruits have been made into a large number of products like jam, jellies, preserves by adding sugar as preservative or could also be canned.
Thus, we can eat fresh foods when available and store them as products, so they are not wasted due to spoilage.
Food science helps to process the fresh foods into various products and while it tries to maintain the quality of the food with respect to safety and sensory attributes, it also helps to reduce the losses of nutrients occurring during process and storage.
There is a lot of information on the net and in various media including print media about food and diet. Many people advise us, whether they are qualified or not, about food. They say which foods are nutritious and healthy and which are not. Their comments are based more on their perception and belief, rather than on facts. There are a few who are quite qualified as they have years of experience and knowledge. However, common people have no way of separating right from wrong.
More recently, another trend has started, namely sensationalising. People normally pay more attention to sensational news rather than what is normal. So some influencers have started making sensational claims about some foods, either good or bad. That catches the attention of a lot of people and they either buy or reject some foods or products depending on such exaggerated statements made in sensational manner.
This blog may make some statements and does not expect readers to accept verbatim. They are advised to verify things with their own sources and some independent sources. This should be the practice when a new information is presented to anyone. In these times of AI, many things could be falsely represented. It is always better to verify from multiple sources before believing them. This is especially in case of foods or such things that matter our lives to a great extent. We hope you learn and enjoy the articles published in this blog and make use of these to understand food and nutrition.
Food Science Nutrified 