Opinion on the prospects of emerging food processing technologies to achieve sustainability in the industry by reduced energy consumption, waste reduction and valorisation, and improved food nutrition

Abstract

Conventional food processing technologies cannot meet the demands of sustainability in the face of societal concerns about climate change, resource scarcity, and food insecurity. Therefore, the food industry must embrace emerging food processing technologies such as ohmic heating, microwave heating, cold plasma, pulsed electric field, and ultrasound to achieve sustainable food production. Although these technologies have been researched worldwide, they have yet to be widely adopted in the industry as concerns such as high capital investments, regulatory issues, technological limitations, and scalability limit their practical applications. This manuscript discusses key contributions of emerging technologies in enhancing sustainability, including reducing energy consumption, waste reduction and valorisation, and enhancing nutrition. Despite these promising capabilities, fully benefiting from emerging technologies in the industry requires further technological advancements, optimisation, economic viability, consumer acceptance, regulatory compliance, and sustainable workforce education. These could be achieved only by close collaborations between academia, industry, and technology developers. Such considerations and actions to resolve the concerns could facilitate the industrial application of emerging technologies to achieve a more sustainable future with reduced carbon emission, environmental impact, and carbon footprint, along with the capability of improved resource efficiency and further contributions to food security and food nutrition improvement.