Mission:
The mission of the Healthy Processed Foods Research Unit is to enhance the healthfulness and marketability of foods, with emphasis on specialty crops such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, by developing new sustainable technologies to add value to these crops and their co-products. Environmentally friendly technologies that reduce energy consumption and water use are emphasized. Extensive knowledge of the chemicals naturally present in foods and effects that processing has on them, enables the unit to tap into the potential of nature and develop novel, healthy foods. In addition, the unit also studies applications of new technologies to improve the safety of specialty crops , allergens and sorting technologies to improve food quality. Both fundamental and applied multidisciplinary approaches are used to solve problems and develop new products that benefit the consumer, producer, economy and environment.