Food processing: 25 Flemish professors urge for a more nuanced look
(18-02-2025) In an opinion piece 25 Flemish professors in food sciences and nutrition – many from Ghent University – state the importance of (industrial) food processing for a global food system and react to the unnuanced distrust of processed food.
Food processing has been the backbone of our food system for millennia. Without food processing, many of the foods we consume every day would simply be unsafe, inedible or unhealthy. Think of heating milk to kill bacteria, grinding wheat into flour to process it into food, or heating a soy drink to break down anti-nutritional factors so that it does not negatively affect the absorption of certain essential components from our diet.