Abstract
The purpose of food processing has changed over time. High-intensity industrially processed food often exhibits higher concentrations of added sugar, salt, higher energy, and lower micronutrient density than does similar food or meals prepared at home from raw or minimally processed food. Viewing the evolution of food processing from history, one could make out three major transitions related to human socioeconomic changes. The first transition was marked by the change from hunting and gathering to settled societies with agriculture and livestock farming. The second and third transitions were associated with the Industrial Revolution and with market liberalization, global trade and automation, respectively. The next major transition that will influence food processing and shape human nutrition may include the exploitation of sustainable and efficient protein and food sources that will ensure high-quality food production for the growing world population. Apart from novel food sources, traditional food such as legumes and pulses likewise exhibit great potential to contribute to a healthy balanced diet. The promotion of legumes should be intensified in public dietary guidelines because their consumption is rather low in high-income countries and increasingly displaced as a traditional staple by industrially processed food in low- to middle-income countries.
Highlights
The second and third transitions were associated with the Industrial Revolution and with market liberalization, global trade and automation, respectively
Over the course of time, three major socioeconomic transitions are thought to have driven the evolution of food processing most
Improvements in food processing included the introduction of steam and rolling mills for refined flour production and the enhancement of food preservation techniques [23]
Summary
Food processing is not an invention of modern times but presumably has already been employed by the early archaic humans of the Early and Middle Pleistocene [1,2,3]. It is supposed that apart from a higher proportion of animal-based food, such as meat, the application of non-thermal food processing, such as pounding, cutting, grinding or sun-drying, contributed to the increased dietary quality of archaic humans [1,5]. The Neanderthals inhabited wide parts of southwestern and Central Europe and Asia and are considered to have been sophisticated fire users. They made use of a variety of plant foods, such as grains and legumes, through cooking, complementing their otherwise likely animal-based diet [15].
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