preview

Food Processing And Its Effects On Population Health

Better Essays

The term food processing is often improperly defined. Although a lack of food processing regulations today may pose health concerns for the modern consumer due to its association with chemical additives and unnatural transformations, food processing in its most basic form can be defined quite simply as any procedure undergone by food commodities after they have left the primary producer, and before they reach the consumer” (Welch, 2000). Therefore, food processing in and of itself is an extremely broad industry ranging in functions that, over the course of history, has had both beneficial and harmful effects on population health.

Food processing has a long history dating all the way back to the earliest civilizations of humanity. From the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Romans to the Aztecs and Incas, early civilizations from around the world recorded knowledge of how to preserve food with the limited materials available. Innovators they most certainly were, the ancient civilizations managed to preserve foods by adding salt, sun-drying foods, and roasting over fire. While this may not be what initially comes to mind when we think of food processing in a modern context today, ancient civilizations did in fact alter the natural structure of foods- thus initiating the food processing industry with techniques that, unknowingly at the time, utilized quite a lot of science. Although these contributions to the history of food processing were a significant

Get Access