It includes areas such as crop and livestock farming, agricultural and agrochemical equipment manufacturing, food processing, packaging and labeling, warehousing, distribution, regulatory frameworks, financing, marketing, retail, catering, research and development, and education. The food and beverage industry includes all companies involved in the transformation of raw agricultural products into consumer food products. Industries in the food manufacturing subsector transform livestock and agricultural products into products for intermediate or final consumption. Industrial groups are distinguished by raw materials (usually of animal or vegetable origin) transformed into food products.
From simple ovens and conveyors to complex bottling and packaging machines, the food and beverage industry depends on equipment for industrial-scale food production. Food products manufactured in these establishments are normally sold to wholesalers or retailers for distribution to consumers, but this includes establishments primarily engaged in the retail sale of bakery products and confectionery made on site not for immediate consumption. Food production, as the name suggests, is about preparing food, in which raw materials are converted into food products prepared for human use, whether in the home or in the food processing industries. Research areas such as food classification, food preservation, food rheology and food storage are directly concerned with quality and quality maintenance that overlaps many of the above processes.
A kitchen is a place where food is cooked and has all the equipment needed to cook. The term food industries encompasses a series of industrial activities aimed at the production, distribution, processing, conversion, preparation, preservation, transportation, certification and packaging of food. Organizations, such as the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), have been criticized for accepting monetary donations from companies in the food industry, such as Coca-Cola. And it must do so cleanly and in accordance with regulatory requirements, just like the food production equipment itself.
These minimally processed foods retain the original properties, that is, the nutritional, physical, sensory and chemical properties as the unprocessed form and are ready for further processing by the food industry (secondary processing). Food processing takes clean, harvested, or slaughtered components and uses them to produce marketable food products. Since World War II, agriculture in the United States and the entire national food system as a whole has been characterized by models that focus on monetary profitability at the expense of social and environmental integrity. The term “food production” is sometimes used in a broader sense to group together most of the activities involved in the food industry, such as agriculture, processing and distribution.
Biotechnology is driving many changes, in areas as diverse as agrochemicals, plant breeding and food processing. The final activity in the food system relates to food consumption and waste disposal, which is unfortunately beyond the scope of this course.
