Sustainable Innovation in Food Science and Engineering

Nowadays the sustainability of a product, a process, or a system is assessed according to three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Sustainability challenges occur at all stages in the food system from production through processing, distribution, and retailing to consumption and waste disposal. Consequently, the promotion of organic and local foods is not the only way; there is another possibility that may foster continuing the production hegemony, emphasizing biotechnology and technological panaceas. Increasing research is being focused on the development of healthy, quality, and safe food products adapted to consumers’ needs and more environmentally friendly processes, that is, processes consuming energy more efficiently, generating less waste, and emitting less greenhouse-effect gases, among other features. This chapter contains detailed information about some measures taken by the food industry to ensure the supply of essential nutrients to as many individuals as possible assuring global sustainability. More specifically, the contributions of some techniques employed in the development of functional foods, such as formulation and blending, cultivation and breeding, microencapsulation, edible films and coatings application, vacuum impregnation and nutrigenomics, to increase the sustainability of the feeding process, are discussed.