MEMORANDUM To: Professor Schab From: Ross Kuhn Date: September 25th, 2013 Subject: Technical Definition and

Description

This memos purpose is to identify the purpose, audience, placement, and the visuals I used in my Technical Description and my Extended Technical Definition. The topic I have chosen is Food Processing. This is a subcategory of my field, Food Science. Purpose: To explain to the audience the process of putting a food product on the shelf of a grocery store. I want the audience to appreciate the luxury of being able to walk into a grocery store and buy whatever type of food you want. Audience: This Definition/Description will benefit the American consumers. It will expand their knowledge beyond the shelves of the grocery store. This Definition/Description is suitable for all ages interested, No level of education is needed, only common sense. It is for the curious and knowledge seekers. Placement: This Extended Technical Definition and Technical Description should be placed in consumers of America Article, or in a journal where general interested Americans can learn about food processing. Inside a grocery store, being portrayed as a tidbit is another possible placement. Visuals: I chose three visuals. The first visual I picked was to show the importance of inspection in food processing, and the result of the Food Inspection Act of 1906. The second picture is of a modern day processing plant facility. It will help the readers relate to what an inside of a processing plant looks like. The final picture was of aisles of a grocery store. This shows the final product the complex process of food. It helps the reader take in all that they read and hopefully see grocery stores a little differently after reading the definition, description.

Technical Definition: Food Processing is the creation of food from raw materials and/or combinations of food to create another type of food. Food Processing is made of several components. The process starts with farmer, then the first transporter, the processing plant, the second transporter, and finally the wholesaler/retailer. Each of these components has a specific objective to fulfill for the process to be complete. The Farmer: Their primary objective is to grow and mature a quality base product for the processor. This can include wheat, beans, corn, beef, pork, lamb, etc. Different farms have different seasons. The farmer is typically very busy half the year, and the remaining half is spent selling their crop yield and preparing for the next season. Some crops such as a beef, chicken and lamb dont have seasons so they are operating year around. At the end of the season farmers should have a high quality product ready to be stored in proper storage container and shipped to the processor. The First Transporter: Transportation comes in various different ways. There is the truckers, railroad cars, pricey planes, and the most common, cargo ships. The mission of the transporters is to get the base product from the farmers to the processing plant quickly and safely. This component is often overlooked and underappreciated. In some rare cases the process can bypass this component depending if the crop is on same grounds (property) as the process plant. The Processing Plant: This is the most important part of the process. This is where the base product is transformed into the final product. The first step in the processing plant is inspection. After a product is received, it is inspected by workers, one inspection being by U.S.D.A. Food Inspectors. After the good and bad products are separated, the first steps into creating the final product begin. This can include grinding down grains, shelling of nuts, or separating cuts of carcass. Following steps may include combining, baking, freezing, trimming, etc. These steps continue until the product is ready to be inspected before packaging. After packaging, the product is inspected one last time before being sent off to a storage facility or wholesaler/retailer. The second transporter/storage: After the processing plant the product is loaded onto one of the various modes of transportation and shipped to a storage facility (for a short time) or grocery store. Wholesale/Retailer:

The final component to Food Processing is the Store. This is where the finalized product gets received, and is inspected by store dept manager. The store employees date and rotate the product into the stores inventory to be placed on the shelves, and purchased by the consumer. Technical Description: Food Processing has been around since the beginning of mankind. It wasnt as advanced, efficient, or as sanitary as it is today, Food Processing began to make substantial improvements 1900s, it advanced as the age industrialism did. Major Corporations such as Kelloggs, General Mills, Tyson, Nestle, and Coca Cola began to spring up all over the States. With these came competition, and strive for better work. This increased technology and over all improvement of Food Processing. A small but important component of Food Processing is safety precaution. Beginning in the 1900s. Food laws were passed making sure everything produced was sanitary and proper. A major law was the Food Inspection Act of 1906. It was influenced by The Jungle by Upson Sinclair. This made the public aware of meat plants unsanitary and unsafe procedures. The figure to left shows the result of the book, the beginning of meat inspection. Not only were they endangering consumers, the workers were working in horrible conditions. Through out the 1900s and into the millennium, inspection laws involving, chicken, raw meats, seafood, and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) were passed. These laws really helped improve Food Processing as a whole. Transportation also has influence on Food Processing. As more farms, processing plants, and stores were being built, the more need for transporting the products to and from the facilities. The more the roads and rail roads the better. Refrigerated semi-trucks really benefited the roadside of transportation. Traveling long distances no longer was a problem. The construction of the Panama Canal improved shipping routes involving speed and safety. There are millions of drivers, captain, and pilots traveling around the world today, primarily to transport food products. As Population grew in the west, more farms were constructed and old farms became bigger and better as technology grew. Today, we still heavily rely on farming and nothing major has changed with the traditional way of farming besides the technology and equipment.

There are thousands of food processing plants in the United States. Just like every thing else these plants have become more technologic overtime. Even in smaller plants products are made hourly. Not, only are they creating product for Americans they are also creating jobs. Consumers rely on these plants for the output of there food. As demand for these products rises processing plants become more efficient in the way they process their foods.

The figure to the right is an example of a processing plant today. The final step in food processing is the store, either being a wholesaler or retailer. This is where the product is placed on the shelves for consumers to purchase. Demand is created at these grocery stores. What is sold at these stores is the deciding factor on what products are more wanted by consumers compared to other products. Below is a picture showing the expanse and luxury of a present day grocery store.

Sources: Google Images, USDA.GOV The Jungle, Upson Sinclair, 1906. Wikipedia Food Science Classes.