how is science connected to food

Question: how is science connected to food
- Keywords:
  food
Asked by jenniferno to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 17 Jun 2011.
- Jessica Chu answered on 17 Jun 2011:
  
  In many ways!
  
  Food comes from living things and while they are alive there are many scientific processes going on that we understand or are still trying to understand. For example when plants grow they photosynthesize, this means they use the sunlight to makes glucose that they can use to grow.
  
  Also when we cook things there are chemical reaction happening. For example when you toast a piece of bread the outside changes colour as the carbohydrates breakdown and become sugars (it goes brown) and also in meat the proteins are changed by the heat and the colour changes.
  
  Then when we eat the food there are even more scientific things happening we produce enzymes that breakdown the food into tiny pieces so we can use them to grow bigger or have energy to go for a run!
  
  P.S since that my project is cancer related – you can find lots of chemicals in fruit and veg that will help prevent cancer cells from forming 🙂 ]
  Here’s a few things
  green tea
  red wine
  tomatoes
  broccoli etc.
- Zara Gladman answered on 17 Jun 2011:
  
  Hey Jenniferno!
  
  Jess has already answered this – LOTS of ways! 🙂
  
  The crayfish that I study can be eaten, for example. And the crayfish affect other animals that we also eat, like fish. Some fisherman are angry that crayfish are spreading into their rivers because they don’t want the crayfish to have bad effects on fish and fishing (crayfish eat fish and fish eggs)! Lots of the animals and plants that we study are edible.
  
  The Food Standards Agency work for the government and do a lot of research on food and how to make sure it is safe e.g. research topics like ‘mad cow disease’, food hygiene, nutrition. This is their website here: http://www.food.gov.uk/
  
  Genetically modified (GM) food is another research topic which is very popular in science – and also quite controversial! GM foods have had their DNA altered in some way e.g. to make it grow faster, taste better, or be more resistant to disease. Many people think this is a good thing, but many people are also worried about GM technology and the impact it might have on human health or environment.
  
  There are lots of other ways that science is linked with food – hope that gives you a couple of ideas anyway! 🙂
- Edward Codling answered on 17 Jun 2011:
  
  Science is connected to food in lots of ways!
  
  Some of the work I have done on protecting wildlife populations is directly linked to food. Almost all the fish that we catch from the sea is eaten (not all by humans – a lot goes into animal feed). Not only do we need to check that the food is safe to eat, but we also need to make sure that we don’t take too many fish from the sea so that the population declines too much. In some of my work we studied cod fish in the Irish Sea and showed that they were being overfished – this led to the fisheries managers in the EU looking at new ways to manage cod all across Europe!
  
  Some of my colleagues also look at the science of how food goes bad when it is transported or stored in a shop. This is know as ‘post-harvest technology’: http://www.writtle.ac.uk/Post-Harvest-Technology-Unit
  These people get sent loads of new food packaging by supermarkets and they have to check how well they protect the food and maintain the lifespan so it doesn’t go off. I like visiting them as they always have loads of spare fruit and veg to give away! 🙂

Question: how is science connected to food

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