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In recent years, there have been significant changes in the preferences of consumers for foods that are healthier and higher. Individual food manufacturers have responded in variety of ways to meet up with this rapidly growing demand to remain competitive within the food industry. To meet these demands food manufacturers often employ a number of scientists whose primary objective is to carry out research that will lead to the development of new products, the improvement of existing products and the reduction of manufacturing costs. Many scientists working in universities, government research laboratories and large food companies carry out basic research.
We design experiments to provide information that leads to a better understanding of the role that different ingredients and processing operations play in determining the overall properties of foods. Research is mainly directed towards investigating the structure and interaction of food ingredients, and how they are effected by changes in environment, such as temperature, pressure and mechanical agitation. Basic research tends to be carried out on simple model systems with well-defined compositions and properties, rather than real foods with complex compositions and structures, so that the researchers can focus on particular aspects of the system. Scientists working for food companies or ingredient suppliers usually carry out product development.
Food Scientists working in this area use their knowledge of food ingredients and processing operations to improve the properties of existing products or to develop new products. These are areas Emachy Laboratory and Chemical Services partners with investors and start-up companies to achieve consumer-dependent food products that are certified by NAFDAC and SON.
In practice, there is a great deal of overlap between basic research and product development, with the basic researchers providing information that can be used by the product developers to rationally optimize food composition and properties. In both fundamental research and product development, analytical techniques are needed to characterize the overall properties of foods (e.g., color, texture, flavor, shelf-life etc.), to ascertain the role that each ingredient plays in determining the overall properties of foods, and to determine how the properties of foods are affected by various processing conditions (e.g., storage, heating, mixing, freezing).
