Food Chain and Green Chemistry

Abstract

The burgeoning global population in the last several centuries created an urgent need to develop sustainable food production, processing and storage techniques. Rapid industrialization has made the modern day food chain more complicated and is comprised of producers, processors, distributors and retailers. The global socioeconomic balance can be maintained with a sufficient supply of healthy and nutritious food. But extensive production of the crop comes with serious environmental concerns, such as overuse of resources, biodiversity exploitation, aquatic eutrophication, water shortages, climate change and global warming. The introduction of green technologies in food production and processing has been at the forefront, which ensures environmental sustainability, better use of resources and reduced emission of greenhouse gases. This chapter discusses the principles of green chemistry and emerging green technologies in the food production and processing industry, which maximize efficiency and reduces environmental and health hazard.