Keynote: Sustainability in Food Industry – Is It Now the Time?

Food industry is among the key consumers of water and energy and hence contributes to the large water and carbon footprints. Through appropriate use of raw materials and advanced processing technologies, these footprints could be reduced, along with the possibility to alleviate various environmental problems conventional materials and processing procedures would typically produce. In this presentation, typical consumption figures of both water and energy during the production of various conventional foods will first be discussed. This will follow by the discussion on the use of alternative raw materials to produce protein-rich foods. Selected schemes that would lead to a more sustainable food processing practice are then reviewed; these schemes result either from a smart combination of existing technologies or from sole advanced technologies. Superheated steam drying, use of electromagnetic energy to assist thawing of frozen seafood as well as the use of dry ice particles for cleaning of food processing equipment will be discussed as the ways the food industry can benefit, both from the sustainability and economic points of view, from the use of these advanced processing technologies.