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Food processing and storage

No agriculture or food system can develop to any scale without the capacity to process and store agricultural products and food.  In addition, it requires the ability to transport and distribute food – as discussed elsewhere in this site.

Food processing entails potentially many steps, starting with field-edge processing and continuing through possibly many stages until the food is finally created and packaged for the consumer.  Processing can have a major impact on a city, including significant facilities, employment and potentially pollution.  Our current industrial food system tends to hide this process away and we rarely see it.

An Agricultural Urbanism project will endeavour to:

  • Ensure land is secured for processing and storage facilities;
  • Encourage as much processing to occur in the community for employment and economic development and reduced food miles; and
  • Utilize various methods to more closely connect urbanites to the processing of their food through design, wholesale outlets in the processing facilities, and others.

Quist Farm butcher processing

Below are some resources on food processing and storage.

  • Food Processsing.com – This is one of the leading websites with a wide range of resources and current information on the food processing industry, including food safety, new products, production lines, trends, packaging, plant maintenance and sustainability.  http://www.foodprocessing.com/ 
  • University of Florida and food facility design – This site offers a nice summary of key issues in the design of a food processing facility.  http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fs120