Early Food Tech: Understanding Quality & Security for Consumers - Essay Sample

Introduction

Early food technology study focused on the conservation of food. Historically, food techniques have been given little attention by customers. The food chain is long and complex, with a wide range of food and food technology. Consumers are therefore unsure about and find it hard to comprehend the determinants of food quality and security. Popular opinions on technology for food handling matter. Consumers are often seen to be particularly vulnerable to innovative food processing techniques (Swanborn, 2010) .Changes in food retailing were as a result of progress in the transport system, diffusion of electricity and water infrastructures. These factors ensured the effectiveness of technology developed at the industry level. Due to technology adoption, industrially processed foods have conquered consumers' images and practices. During the world wars, food technology was essential since the military industry used the development of commercial food manufacture. The technology had strict regulations and policies on hygiene and food safety ("Grove Ecosystem - Grow Fresh Food in Your Home", 2019). The rules and policies were to reduce the risk of food that could be caused by technology adoption. Development of food technology comes with public anxieties, so to satisfy these anxieties; food companies have established strategies such as investing in functional food markets. These markets sell food products that have great health benefits. The useful food products have been encroaching by big corporate companies enhancing food and pharmaceuticals fields. Process food products have become part of consumers' food consumption, which has been made possible with an adaptation of food technology at the industrial level.

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Food Technologies Disruption

Technology has a positive impact on all sectors once it is adopted, be it in agri-food, manufacturing, or construction area. The technology used in agri-food enhances production in terms of input-output ratio and processing industry. Both industrial and household level use technology in food production. Development of technology in the two levels coevolves with separating production from consumption. Production and consumption differ in the length and complexity of the food chain in both industrial and household levels. Food technology has made products in the food system in united states be safe, convenient, inexpensive, and available. With efficient use of technology, new commercial products are launched by research and development ("IFTF: Seeds of Disruption Map", 2019). Although technology enhances food productivity, it has its challenges during the process. It is difficult to establish a high-quality, nutritious food that will be marketable than other food products.

The technology adopted ensures that nutritious food is sustainable distributed and produced to meet the demand and needs of the consumers. Fulfilling the desire and need of consumers is a huge challenge, but with the help of technology development in agri-food, it becomes easier (Martinez, 2019). The other problem that arises from the development of food technology is the protection of integrity and safety that the global food supply chain offers in food production. The two challenges can be curbed once food technology has been made efficient and effective. The food industry and agricultural industrialization have revolutionized farmers and consumers ' growth and purchasing of food. The impacts of industrial agriculture can be examined if you want to see how it changed the system. It generates millions of employment economically, keeps individuals employed and food accessible, but it has also generated subsidies

Technologies Profoundly Disrupting Common Practices

Industrial Technologies

In the industrial revolution era, the development of technology was crucial since it was used for food preservation and storage of perishable products. These products had to be preserved to reach the urban market and consumers in good condition. The technology of food preservation used in the industrial level has not only improved the chemical industry but also has increased yield through the development of new agricultural technology. In the eighteenth century, canned food was considered a luxury item only affordable by affluent classes since it had a high price. Since the adoption of food technology in many states, canned food has become manageable to all classes. The development of industry in most states made the export of canned products cheap and became affordable to the community ("Startups - Food Tech Matters", 2019). The same case applied to the refrigeration system, which was used for chill drinks and was perceived as an extravagance product. People that could not afford the refrigeration system used ice as cold storage. Since the development of freezing and refrigeration systems, the cold chain had emerged for industrial use. Markets of food products were picking up faster; hence, the demand for refrigerators for industrial used was fast to peck up.

Food and Drug Administration oversees regulations concerning food and drugs manufacturing in regard to labeling, packaging, and advertising. The laws were drafted in response to increasing innovation in food and drug processing that involved the use of chemicals, most of which are detrimental to human health. This created the need to ensure the production of safe, quality, and healthy products based on predetermined standards (Cox et al., 2019). Freedom of invention and manufacturing also posed a threat of malicious exploitation of the innocent public by the producers creating the necessity for their protection as well.

The conduct of clinical research has been positively shaped by the FDA's regulation. FDA has contributed to the ethical standards governing clinical research; including laws regulating the use of human subjects to make sure the trials does not endanger the lives of participants. The ethical standards advocate for voluntary participation with the provision of clear closure on the research details to participants in reference to FDA's freedom of information clause (Plunkett, 2015),

The legislation has been invaluable in protecting human health from consumption of sold food and drug products. However, the rules require reviewing and changes where possible to meet the demanding changes in the rapidly evolving food and drug processing industries to ensure absolute safety. It is essential to clearly define some of the standards governing effective production of drugs and foods as their un-clarity hinders the proper implementation of the regulations due to a misunderstanding resulting from different interpretation CITATION Tru13 \l 1033 (Truninger, 2013). The agency needs to come up with ways to minimize delays in the validation of new drugs, especially which seem to cripple the healthcare sector.

Household/Domestic Technology

Development of social technologies has impacted heavily on women lives. Women in the twentieth century were used to work; hence, they faced the servant problem. During the development of food technologies, women were drawn to industrial production, leaving household chores. Since women were switching from household to industrial, their lives improved from the middle to working class. Household technology raised the standards and conventions of food hygiene, which increased the housework burden. Although household technologies had been developed and adopted, housework had reduced (Tran, 2019). The techniques utilized in food production not only increased the material of processed goods but also maintained body care, hygiene, and nutrition.

The functionalist images that were projected after the development of technology described a woman as an efficient and scientific manager of housework. The designs that were in the household technologies had evolved from social and cultural view. The design was a result of a dynamic process of production and consumption. The social context was included when different social groups participated in the construction and design of household technologies. Also, Science and Technologies Studies (STS) have been studying how these technologies have impacted society at large (Cox et al., 2019). The cognitive approach not only deals with the information that is availed to the consumer but the consumer has to have had prior knowledge and experience. The marketer or anyone who wants to know why the consumer is purchasing a product (in this case organic food) does not ask the question why because the consumer will probably not answer as they are not aware of their purchase decision. The problem is rephrased as to the reason why the commodity valuable to the consumer.

Kitchen technologies and convenience foods are the reason for the decline in cooking skills. For instance, to operate a microwave at home, the operator has to be skill full compared to the traditional cook. Both up-skilling and de-skilling factors were part of the household technologies. For example, in Portugal in a multi-food processor, perceptual skills such as hearing were used to check if the recipe was complete. The noise produced by the processor, Bimbly, described stages that the food product was undergoing. Adoption of technology and use of perceptual skills provided fascinating studies ("Disrupting the Food Industry: A Breakdown on Startup Driven Innovation", 2019). Nowadays, cooking skills are leant through various events such as TV programs that bring new challenges with the pleasure of cooking

Biotechnologies create or change products or procedures to particular uses through biological systems, live organisms, or organism parts. Farmers have enhanced plant crops through traditional breeding methods for millennia, however since many genes are merged every time two crops are crossed, the result of cross-breeding is arbitrary and hard to manage because undesirable traits are passed on to the fresh crop along with the required ones(2019). As a result, the customary cross-breeding practice can only take place between closely interrelated species.

Conclusion

Technologies that are adopted in household and industrial level explore the mode of integration of consumption and price of food production. These technologies have increased food production by increasing yields that is if the technology is efficient and effective. The techniques comprise of equipment that will make house chores easier in the cooking sector (Williams, 2019). Development of technologies constitutes moral fixes that alleviate anxieties around food wastage. The food technologies help in tracing public food scars and enabling them to avoid the scars and the negative impacts that may arise.

Before the adoption of freezing systems, snow and ice were the best the method to cool drink, fruits and meats to reach markets if it is for commercial use or be consumed. Food preparation, preservation, storage and cooking were ways of co-evolution food practices, which was a result of the development of food technologies in both industrial and domestic level. Before the development of food technologies, industry technology was consolidated at the cost of physical and mental being of a specific group of people in society ("Consumer trends and new product opportunities in the food sector (eBook, 2017) [WorldCat.org]", 2019). This assumption slowly faded away when industries produced different types of technologies. Equipment like refrigerator and microwave become affordable; most people have them. Technology reduces human force, operates at any time, enhances productivity, and reduces labor.

References

Consumer trends and new product opportunities in the food sector (eBook, 2017)

[WorldCat.org]. (2019). Retrieved 9 August 2019, from https://www.worldcat.org/title/consumer-trend...