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Preface

Food processing is no longer as simple and straightforward as it was in the past and has now become more of a highly interdisciplinary science than an art, and although the basic principles of food chemistry remain the same, much additional research has been carried out in recent years that has extended and deepened our knowledge. In light of the fact that each of the processes involved in food production—including storage, preparation, and distribution—influences the different qualities of food in either a beneficial or harmful way, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of every safeguarding strategy and how it impacts different food systems. Thus, it is of utmost importance to acquire the requisite knowledge about the technology, methods, and the science of the mode of action. Because of the importance of this complex subject, Food Chemistry: Role of Additives, Preservatives, and Adulteration is designed to present basic information on the composition of foods and the chemical and physical changes that their characteristics undergo during processing, storage, and handling. Details concerning recent developments and insights into the future of food chemical risk analysis are also presented, along with topics such as food chemistry, the role of additives, preservatives and food adulteration, food safety objectives, risk assessment, and quality assurance and control. Moreover, good manufacturing practices, food processing systems, design and control, and rapid methods of analysis and detection are covered, as well as sensor technology, environmental control, and safety.

Today, the variety of food items—mainly fast foods—is greatly increasing for food lovers. Due to tremendous advancements, synthetic and natural supplements are added to these food items and beverages in huge amounts, sometimes with serious consequences. For example, when color preservatives overshoot the sanctioned limit, they gradually cause hyperactivity in children. Therefore, it is mandatory to ensure that the food quality and supplements being added to food for consumption are safe. Consequently, this book contains detailed information about the chemistry of each major class of food additive and their multiple functionalities. In addition, numerous recent findings are covered, along with an explanation of how their quality is ascertained and consumer safety ensured.

A brief description of the topics presented in each chapter of the book follows, starting with the first chapter on health-related aspects such as the limited use of additives to perform and fulfill a certain function within the legal framework. The various rules for consumer safety that should be followed for food to remain healthy and nutritious and the importance of spreading awareness about food adulteration are discussed. The next chapter presents various facts about additives and preservatives used in food processing and preservation, and their health implications. For example, the effect of additives on the population, especially children, as consumption of additives is related to hyperactivity and hypersensitivity. Synthetic additives should especially be avoided due to their potential toxic effect.

The third chapter includes the zealous objective to elevate sustainability or recyclability of plastic packaging via enhanced recovery and the choice of packaging design that takes its end of life into consideration. Progress toward the efficacy of packaging materials can also enhance the removal of food pathogens and alleviate environmental waste by maintaining food quality. Because laws regulating food additives are extremely important for safe use and application, the national and international laws associated with food additives used in the food industry are highlighted in the fourth chapter.

Since screening and detecting adulterants in food commodities is a step that ensures the quality of the product, the fifth chapter highlights detection techniques such as physical, chemical, analytical, and immuno-based techniques. The objective of the sixth chapter is to identify common cases of food adulteration malpractice in developing countries. A preventive and remedial approach to counter food adulteration by evaluating existing laws and technology and looking for gaps in the law is discussed.

Food adulteration, why it is done, and its effect on human health and balanced nutrition are covered in the seventh chapter. Regulations that severely punish illegal traders and dishonest producers that adulterate different food products in various ways should be enforced. Next, the eighth chapter attempts to elucidate different types of antinutrients, their structures and adverse effects, as well as strategies for reducing their levels to improve the quality of food. Also discussed is the extensive research on strategies to reduce the levels of anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) in foods, which is essential to produce foods with few or no ANFs without altering their nutritional or organoleptic value. The ninth chapter is a detailed discussion of the challenges and constraints in future food security. Green technologies and associated research trends in food processing are covered, with a major focus on topics like the search for alternative protein sources, novel technologies in food processing, nutrigenomics, biomimicry, DNA barcoding, lab-on-chip, and nanosensors in food safety technology as remedial solutions and associated regulations in attaining a future sustainable food supply.

Alternative food preservation technologies are advantageous over conventional technologies for beverages and solid foods as they can retain nutritional qualities, sensory attributes, lower the chances of crosscontamination, and increase shelf life. The tenth chapter discusses these alternative food preservation techniques for extending and improving the shelf life of food products with shorter treatment duration and higher product safety. The next chapter discusses the tractability of natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) in relation to environmental impact, stability, solute recovery, and toxicity, taking into consideration the costs.

The twelfth chapter provides a succinct overview of various conventional food additives and preservatives with a major emphasis on their type, functionality, mode of action, and significance for food applications. Furthermore, it stipulates various technological advancements made over the years with novel alternative ingredients and discusses the opportunities shaped by the advent of technologies like nanoencapsulation. The last chapter discusses the broader concept of using nondestructive methods in quality assessment of food products and their applications for food evaluation and quality. The overall quality measurement in the food industry is attributed to the sensor fusion technique, which is a collaborative multi-sensor approach to enhance the quality assessment of agro-food products. These methods, which help to ensure customer satisfaction of products by providing good quality products without rupturing the food product, are discussed in this chapter.

In conclusion, I am very grateful for all the hard work and efforts of the many contributors to this book. I would like to thank all the authors for sharing their insightful research and information with us. I am also very much thankful to Aarushi Sen for her unending encouragement and support throughout the creation of this book. Her help was much appreciated. I am also most grateful for the efforts put in by Martin Scrivener of Scrivener Publishing, whose help made this book possible. I thank him for his patience and consistent support throughout the journey. Finally, I express my sincere thanks to the Department of Chemistry, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh for all the help and support I have received.

Dr. Mousumi Sen

October 2021