The food industry is very diverse and comprises several important components. Each component adds distinct value to the entire food chain by improving sustainability and producing better products. Today's food industry seeks to contribute to nutrition education by offering products that respond to current consumer needs by providing information about product ingredients and nutritional characteristics. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Given the industry's important role in the consumer, education is considered one of its social responsibilities.
In 2000, the Food Information Council (FIC) was able to detect that consumers better understood messages that combined content and function. This is of great importance in defining descriptors for functional food labeling. In addition, it was shown that in consumer education it was more effective to inform about the quality of specific foods and the benefit of consuming them, than to talk in a general way about a group of foods. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
The food industry encompasses a variety of activities including food supply, production, harvesting, processing, packaging, transportation, distribution, consumption and disposal.
Food processing most agricultural products are seasonal and perishable. Food processing is used to transform raw ingredients into marketable food products. It makes some foods available throughout the year.
Packaging or wrapping: protects food from the environment, prolongs the shelf life of food and increases food quality.
Food distribution: this includes transporting, storing, and marketing food products to consumers. A transportation network is needed to connect its many parts. A wholesaler would purchase local products and distribute them to a range of customers.
Regulation: there are regulations on food production and distribution to ensure quality and safety. There are some regulatory requirements that a food company must meet in order to operate. The Central American Technical Regulation RTCA is responsible for labeling regulations in the Central American region, while the FDA is responsible for enforcing food laws and regulations in the United States.
Research and development: research on any aspect of the food industry produces relevant information about that sector. The foodservice sector has the greatest potential for research and development. Research insights can be on factors that influence consumer behavior, customer purchasing choices, attitude formation and opinions. Companies need to have a deep understanding of how consumers behave.
Marketing: marketing is the primary vehicle for promoting information about food. Food marketing describes any form of advertising used to promote the purchase and/or consumption of a food or beverage.
At the forefront
At this time, new consumer trends have emerged, driven by innovation and new technologies towards health, revolutionizing the food industry with the new concept of “functional foods”. Its acceptance by the consumer has been perceived by several factors:
Taste, quality, price, convenience, reliability, familiarity with the product, the nature of the company offering the product, the way of communicating health effects and knowledge, and awareness of the same, reflecting the importance and need to communicate and inform consumers with simple, clear and easy-to-understand messages.
The use of biotechnology in the production of new foods implies an improvement in the industry, added to the elaboration of these products, since genetic engineering techniques allow the introduction of certain changes, offering a better quality of production, more efficient and safer for health. In fact, food biotechnology is the oldest of all biotechnologies.
Recently, recombinant DNA techniques have been applied in food technology to create so-called genetically modified foods or transgenic foods. Examples of such products are transgenic potatoes that function as an oral vaccine against cholera, transgenic wine yeasts capable of producing wine with a fruitier aroma, or cows or sheep that produce milk with high levels of therapeutic proteins.
The food industry is responsible for processing raw materials and transforming them into products for sale and consumption. The importance of the industry lies in the fact that most consumers find it difficult to produce their own food, therefore, practically only products of the food industry are consumed. In addition, it represents one of the most important gears in the economy of any country.
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