Food Processing Industries – SS2 Marketing Lesson Note (Third Term)

Food is anything we eat to stay alive and maintain good health. Food is the first basic need or necessity of life. For a family to feed well, a substantial amount of income is devoted to feeding. Food is very expensive and it easily goes bad. 

Therefore purchase of family food should be planned and necessary processing and preservation should be done to ensure that family food is safe and hygienic.

The meaning of food purchasing

Food purchasing is the activity of acquiring food through the exchange of money. For instance, when a consumer goes to the market with his/her money, he or she offers the seller her money in other to get or owe a particular food item, food here includes vegetables, fruits, meat, fish foodstuff etc.

One needs to know much about the market and how you can buy to make the most out of your food budget.

The meaning of food processing

Food processing can be defined as all those activities whereby crops and animal products in their natural state are changed or transformed into finished goods for future consumption.

Food processing is also the transformation of raw harvested food by physical or chemical means into foodstuff of other forms. After harvesting crops and animal farm produce, they are usually worked on, to remove chaff, husk, toxic etc. For example, to process garri, one will first harvest cassava crops, pour out the back, wash, grind, dry, remove the chaff, and fry to get garri.

The meaning of food preservation

Food preservation refers to the process and practice of treating food to keep it in good condition and a form as near as possible to its original state for a long time.

It is also a process of treating and handling food to prevent or slow down spoilage, loss of quality etc.

Reasons For Preserving Food

The reasons for preserving food include:

1. To minimize or possibly eliminate wastage and spoilage caused by microorganisms, pest attacks and environments to make them last long

2. To convert the food to a form most convenient for storage, transportation and marketing.

3. In areas where food is produced in abundance, it is preserved for sale in cities or during food scarcity.

4. To keep the food from losing its quality and enhance fetching a lower market value.

5. Some foods are seasonal and therefore, need to be put or preserved in a form in which they will be used when they are not in season e.g. maize, some vegetables etc.

6. To ensure an adequate supply of raw food materials for industries in the form in which the industries require them.

Meaning of food storage and safety

This involves keeping food items in a safe and suitable condition for future use. Some seasonal food items like maize and some vegetables need to be stored and kept safe for future use.

Examples of storage facilities: 

1. Storage containers 
2. Food store
3. Refrigerator or freezer
4. Food storage cupboard, cabinet and shelves