The preservation processes for foods have evolved over several centuries, but recent attention to non-thermal technologies suggests that a new dimension of change has been initiated. The new dimension to be emphasized is the emerging technologies for preservation of foods and the need for sound base of information to be developed as inputs for systematic process design. The focus of the work is on process design, and emphasizes the need for quantitative information as inputs to process design. The concepts presented build on the successful history of thermal processing of foods and use many examples from these types of preservation processes. Preservation of foods by refrigeration, freezing, concentration and dehydration are not addressed directly, but many of the concepts to be presented would apply. Significant attention is given to the fate of food quality attributes during the preservation process and the concept of optimizing process parameters to maximize the retention of food quality.

Author Biography

Dennis R. Heldman is the Dale A. Seiberling Endowed Professor of Food Engineering at The Ohio State University. He is also and Adjunct Professor at the University of California-Davis and Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri. He has been author or co-author of over 150 research projects and several books. He served as President of the Institute of Food Technologists in 2006-07, and was recognized with the Food Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Engineering and Food in 2011.