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Through an extensive literature review, including scientific publications and organizational reports of food processing companies, our main goal in this paper is to identify the trajectory of the food industry and processing technology from its birth in the nineteenth century to the present time. In this paper, the following questions are addressed: How have we got here? And where are we going? In essence, this review perceives three main paradigm shifts in the food industry, supported by four main knowledge development cycles of Food Science and Technology. Furthermore, this paper also surmises that we are now at the most challenging moment considering the two centuries of history of the food industry. Despite an unquestionable technological development, while ensuring the scale production of microbiologically safe, nutritious, and appealing foods, the industry has apparently not effectively engaged its stakeholders. Particularly, the industry needs to improve its approach towards the consumer. The contemporary challenging situation outside the box urges the development of new processes and technologies considering present-day consumption drivers associated with processed food. This is important for the industry to reinvent itself so as to understand that more than creating textures, the opportunity is also to preserve and enhance attributes derived from the raw material and from the relationships established throughout the value chain in which it operates.

Consumer behavior surveys in the online environment have been encouraged, but its application needs further investigation. Completion test is a projective technique that can reveal the deepest thoughts and feelings of consumer, and can be used to identify the attributes of a product that they valorize. The main purpose of this study was to discuss the conduction of the completion test in an virtual environment and present an online empirical application. The study focused on consumer choice regarding frozen burger, a widely known product that has gone through innovation. Using as stimuli images of couples in the supermarket with incomplete dialogues, a two-in-one online completion test was carried out with 357 respondents, focusing on the main attributes for consumers at the moment of burger purchase, and in the estimation of a price range through the consumer internal reference. As the results of the empirical study were comparable to secondary data, the online application of the completion test was considered valuable, besides being convenient and capable to yield rich information.

The last few decades have stood out because of the improvements made in food processing under two axes: plurality (conventional technologies co-existing with new alternatives) and sustainability (jointly with efficiency, quality and safety). This article aims at discussing how these technological developments in food processing are addressed in life cycle literature, regarding case studies in which different food processing alternatives are compared. From the examined case studies some methodological aspects were underscored to improve the application of LCA in food processing: the functional unit, system boundaries, scale and data source issues, as well as the relevance of process water and wastewater composition. Furthermore, different findings have emerged with a direct impact on future developments: the (re)thinking of technological and operational conditions (with an emphasis on cleaner production techniques), the inclusion of scale decision and consumption, and the importance of incorporating nutritional, sensorial and socio-economic dimensions to assist decision making.

Do consumers know what organic processed food is and are they able to correctly identify it? This article aimed to address these questions in Brazil. We used the snowball methodology to disseminate the questionnaire (1,690 answers) containing 21 questions regarding: 1. frequency of consumption, 2. self-assessment of knowledge regarding organic processed food, 3. ability to identify the organic label, 4. knowledge regarding the organic processed food identity standards, 5. socioeconomic profile. Participants' self-assessed knowledge showed positive associations with both the knowledge regarding identity standards and the ability to identify organic labels. Younger, more educated participants who were responsible for domestic purchases were more likely to correctly identify organic processed food. No compelling evidence was found that frequency of organic processed food consumption affected the performance on the questionnaire. We also found evidence that regions of residence affect the level of knowledge and ability to identify organic processed food.

What is the profile of Food Engineering education in Brazil? Are we following the contemporary professional renewal trend? Driven by these questions, the present study analyzed data regarding 21 academic courses, which represent approximately 22% of the total bachelor’s degree in food engineering courses offered in the country. Samples were defined considering a Brazilian annual ranking of undergraduate programs: very good (four stars) and excellent (five stars). Next, information was recovered from both the Brazilian Ministry of Education and institutional homepages of each analyzed program. The r esults suggest that food engineering programs exhibit relative identity, naturally due to their history and the path of each program and their faculty, shaping particularities in how fields of knowledge are constituted, in addition to their representativeness in the total workload of the program. However, initial analysis is suggestive regarding understanding that Brazil is not properly doing its homework, based on global movement, concerning food engineering education. The need to rethink Brazilian technical education, without culminating in additional workload, is emphasized, not only regarding new materials and technologies for learning and teaching, but also in terms of bringing a human and market approach. The achievement of this complex goal seems to be provided by the encouragement of student associations, transversal learning processes , and learning experiences outside the classroom as a means of improving undergraduate programs and human resources.

Although the demand for healthy foods has increased, the desire for convenience prevails. Thus, there is an opportunity to popularize convenient yet healthy food. Despite efforts investigating the technical feasibility of achieving healthy attributes in meat products, few studies have addressed consumer perceptions regarding these products. Projective techniques have been used to better understand consumer attitudes towards foods and beverages. For these reasons, the objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of the projective technique of word association to obtain inferences about consumer perceptions regarding four types of frozen burgers: traditional, reduced-sodium, reduced-fat and with antioxidants. The projective technique of word association was employed with cluster analysis based on an attitudinal questionnaire. Fifty-six consumers participated. Healthiness, Good Flavor, Quality/Flavor Apprehension and Fat/Calories were the most mentioned categories and therefore deserve the industry's attention. Different types of burgers revealed distinct associations, suggesting that marketing efforts could consider these particular attributes. Consumers with different attitudes towards health might have different perceptions of these meat products, which could be further explored. In general, all products considered in this study merit further investigation in quantitative and qualitative consumer studies, and the projective technique of word association deserves to be increasingly used.