1. Food processing, a special industry!

The food processing sector is somewhat unusual compared to other industrial sectors, both in terms of the specificity of raw materials and finished products, and the diversity of unit operations and processes involved.

• In terms of the raw materials used

  They are generally composed of products of plant or animal origin, subject to cellular metabolic disorders of a biochemical nature as soon as they are harvested, slaughtered or fished. They are also subject to other alterations, which may be the result of microbial development and/or physico-chemical reactions. As a result, raw materials are living, fragile and perishable.

  They often lack morphological homogeneity, and their composition, origin and availability vary in time and space. Food industry raw materials are therefore heterogeneous...