Food Science - Disciplines

Disciplines

Some of the subdisciplines of food science include:

• Food safety – the causes, prevention and communication dealing with foodborne illness
• Food microbiology – the positive and negative interactions between micro-organisms and foods
• Food preservation – the causes and prevention of quality degradation
• Food engineering – the industrial processes used to manufacture food
• Product development – the invention of new food products
• Sensory analysis – the study of how food is perceived by the consumer's senses
• Food chemistry – the molecular composition of food and the involvement of these molecules in chemical reactions
  • Food physical chemistry- the study of both physical and chemical interactions in foods in terms of physical and chemical principles applied to food systems, as well as the application of physicochemical techniques and instrumentation for the study and analysis of foods
• Food packaging – the study of how packaging is used to preserve food after it has been processed and contain it through distribution
• Molecular gastronomy – the scientific investigation of processes in cooking, social and artistic gastronomical phenomena
• Food technology – the technological aspects
• Food physics – the physical aspects of foods (such as viscosity, creaminess, and texture)
• Food physical chemistry- physical and chemical aspects of foods, structure-functionality relationships in foods.