Nanotechnology in the Agri-Food Sector (Implications for the Future) || Food Functionality and the Physics of Bionanotechnology: Some Examples and Challenges

✍ Scribed by Frewer, Lynn J.; Norde, Willem; Fischer, Arnout; Kampers, Frans

• Publisher: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 193 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 3527330607
• DOI: 10.1002/9783527634798.ch8

✦ Synopsis

Foods can be defi ned as materials that are edible and that provide nutritional value . Naturally, foods are also supposed to be attractive from a sensory point of view, that is, they should trigger one or more of our senses (touch, sight, smell, taste, sound) in such a manner that we can actually eat the material and like it during consumption and afterwards, and also preferably wish to consume it on subsequent occasions.

In relating foods with bionanotechnology , the fi rst part is to relate the term " foods " with the term " technology " . Before phrasing a defi nition of food technology, it is important to note that foods can be either fresh or prepared, and that they are made available throughout the world in different manners, like, for example, in local markets, supermarkets, elderly homes, hospitals, schools, restaurants, and in the kitchen at home. This leads us to a defi nition of food technology as: the area of application of knowledge that allows one to decide • in the case of prepared foods, which ingredient has to be put in where, when and how, during the preparation of the food, in relation to ensuring desired functionalities during processing, storage, transport, consumption and digestion;

• in the case of fresh food (fruits, vegetables, … ), what treatments have to be utilized in relation to ensuring desired functionalities during processing, storage, transport, consumption and digestion.

Food technology is one of the areas that plays an important role in addressing future challenges in providing food around the world. The challenges encompass:

• affordable and suffi cient availability for a growing world population; • need for sustainable production taking into account optimization of energy and water supplies, … );