Living Room Logic – Irish Science Podcast

Today, we sit down with Alan Kelly, a professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at University College Cork.

Listen in as Professor Alan deep dive into the various myths and misconceptions around processed food. Defining “processing” as the transformation of raw material, he sheds some light on what is actually done to food before it reaches consumers and how we can make more informed choices about what we put into our body.

He kicks off the conversation with a brief history of processed food and how various preservation techniques have helped human beings to survive harsh climates and even allowed civilization to make the transition from farms to cities.

Professor Alan goes on to make the case that many—even modern—food processing techniques do not necessarily make what we’re eating “unhealthy”. He speaks on the achievement of minimal processing in particular and how current and future technologies are geared towards finding better ways to keep our food safe and stable.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

●    [01:44] Defining “processed food”

●    [05:46] Why processed food allowed civilization to evolve

●    [10:14] The development of preservation techniques for the purpose of survival

●    [13:17] How to look at processing techniques in the modern world

●    [16:06] The regulation of food

●    [18:42] Achieving “minimal processing”

●    [25:48] The pros of preserving food

●    [30:00] Social perceptions of food processing techniques

●    [35:45] Future food processing technologies

Key Quotes by Professor Alan Kelly:

●    Over thousands of years, we figured out that, to be good for us to eat, to be safe, to be stable, food has to be transformed one way or another.

●    Learning how to process food was key to the evolution of cities.

●    We need to have confidence that food is one of the most regulated parts of our daily lives.

●    Science, food science being no exception, is about solving problems.