FOOD PRODUCTION

• Food is necessary for health, growth and normal functions of living organisms
• One of the greatest world major problems today is how to eliminate hunger and food insecurity
• Food security


  A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life
• Important aspects of food security

  • Availability of foodstuff
  • Quality of the diet
  • Stability of supplies over time and space
  • Access to food produced
• More than eight hundred million people were food insecure
• Hunger affects one out of seven people on the planet
• Food insecurity is a particularly serious issue in many low-income countries
• The largest absolute numbers of undernourished people are in Asia, while the largest proportion of the population that is undernourished is in Africa, south of the Sahara
• Sixty thousand people, majority of whom are children, die each day of hunger
• Food insecurity and hunger are forerunners to nutritional, health, human and economic development problems
• Malnutrition affects one out of every three preschool-age children living in developing countries
• More than 800 million people have too little to eat to meet their daily energy needs
• Over 150 million children under five years of age in the developing world are underweight
• Food insecurity has been identified as the principal cause of increasing and accelerated migration from rural to urban areas in developing countries
• Poverty


  The failure of the economic system to generate sufficient income and distribute it broadly enough to meet households' basic needs
• Solutions to food insecurity

  • Giving food directly to the poor (non-market distribution of aid)
  • Increasing the incomes of the poor so that they have greater entitlement to food through the market
  • Reducing the costs of food delivered through markets by fostering technical and institutional innovations in farm-level production and the marketing system
• Attaining food security is a primary responsibility which rests with individual governments
• Issues national governments must address to improve food and nutrition security

  • Enhancing the means to acquire food, whether through cash incomes or access to productive resources
  • Improved education for the chain of food handlers
  • Provision of access to sufficient quantities of food items
  • Direct nutrition interventions to provide food to those suffering from acute hunger and malnutrition
  • Provision of clean water, adequate sanitation and effective health services
  • Efforts to open national markets to international trade
  • Addressing the issue of gender equity
  • Locally conceived and implemented action
  • Ensuring budgetary allocations reflect the central importance of food and nutrition security
  • Dedicated advocacy to inform policymakers of the critical role of improved nutrition in development and poverty alleviation
• Food spoilage is a major problem facing farmers in Nigeria because of what it does to quality and quantity of food
• Food spoilage


  Adverse changes in the quality of food due to biological reactions
• Categories of food based on spoilage

  • Perishable foods
  • Semi-perishable foods
  • Stable foods
• Causes of food spoilage

  • Mechanical damage
  • Microbiological activity (bacteria, yeasts, and moulds)
  • Autolysis (oxidation reaction and enzymatic activity)
  • Insect and rodent attacks
  • Temperature related factors
• Food preservation


  The act of protecting food from deterioration and decay so that it will be available for future consumption
• Contamination with microorganisms and pests causes considerable losses of foods during storage, transportation and marketing</b>
• Pathogenic bacteria are an important cause of human suffering and one of the most significant public health problems all over the world
• The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the infectious and parasitic diseases represent the most frequent cause of death worldwide
• Food preservation methods


  Any method that will create unfavourable conditions for the factors which are capable of adversely affecting the safety, nutritive value, appearance, texture, flavour, and keeping qualities of raw and processed foods
• Traditional methods of preserving foods

  • Dehydration
  • Smoking
  • Salting
  • Controlled fermentation (including pickling)
  • Candying
  • Use of spices as antiseptics and preservatives
• Modern processes for food preservation

  • Refrigeration (including freezing)
  • Canning
  • Pasteurisation
  • Irradiation
  • Addition of chemical preservatives
• Blanching


  A slight heat treatment, using hot water, steam, gas or high-frequency radiation that is usually applied to fruits and vegetables before canning or freezing
• Pasteurization


  A process that inhibits fermentation and destroys pathogenic microorganisms to extend the shelf life of a food
• Ranges of pasteurisation temperature regimes

  • Low-Temperature Long Time (LTLT): 63-65°C for 30 minutes
  • High-Temperature Short Time (HTST): 71.7-75°C for 15-16 seconds
  • Ultra High Temperature (UHT): 121-138°C for 2-5 seconds
• Tyndallization


  A cycle of heat process aimed at destroying the vegetative forms of microbes at a high temperature between 70 – 100 °C followed by cooling to 37 °C by allowing the resistant spores to germinate and finally reheating at a high temperature to destroy the germinated spores
• Sterilization


  A method of heat treatment that is aimed at removing all microorganisms
• Types of commercially sterile processes

  • Canning
  • Bottling
  • Aseptic processing
• Freezing


  Turns water in food into ice crystals which rupture the microbial cells, making water unavailable for reactions and microbial growth
• Refrigeration


  Lowering the temperature and maintaining it in a given space to chill foods and slow down microbial activities and chemical changes resulting in spoilage
• Drying


  A combination of continuous mild heat with air circulation that will carry the moisture off, reducing the water content of food
• Cold storage


  Storing perishable foods, furs, pharmaceuticals, or other items under refrigeration to slow down microbial activities and chemical changes resulting in spoilage
• Chilling


  Keeping food at 0–4 °C, but some spoilage microorganisms (psychrophiles) may still be alive and grow slowly