Handbook of Sustainability for the Food Sciences

Many books on sustainability have been written in the last decade, most of them dealing with agricultural systems, communities, and general business practices. In contrast, Handbook of Sustainability for the Food Sciences presents the concept of sustainability as it applies to the food supply chain from farm to fork but with a special emphasis on processing.

Structured in four sections, Handbook of Sustainability for the Food Sciences first covers the basic concepts of environmental sustainability and provides a detailed account of all the impacts of the food supply chain. Part two introduces the management principles of sustainability and the tools required to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services as well as environmental claims and declarations. Part three looks at ways to alleviate food chain environmental impacts and includes chapters on air emissions, water and wastewater, solid waste, energy, packaging, and transportation. The final part summarizes the concepts presented in the book and looks at the measures that will be required in the near future to guarantee long term sustainability of the food supply chain. Handbook of Sustainability for the Food Sciences is aimed at food science professionals including food engineers, food scientists, product developers, managers, educators, and decision makers. It will also be of interest to students of food science.

Rubén O. Morawicki, Ph.D., The Author has 6-year degree in Chemical Engineering from Argentina, a Masters in Industrial Engineering with concentration in Engineering Management from State University of New York at Buffalo and a Ph.D. in Food Science from the Pennsylvania State University. During his graduate school years, he also took classes at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), in Syracuse New York, when he became an advocate of environmental issues. Dr. Morawicki's career as a scientist started in Argentina where he worked as a research scientist for five years in the area or simultaneous heat and mass transfer during drying of food products. He moved to the US in 1997 to pursue graduate studies. After graduating with his Ph.D. in 2002, he immediately joined Tyson Foods as a Senior Research Scientist and work in the area of development of new products from industrial co-products. In January of 2005, he left the corporate world to become a Faculty member at the Food Science Department at the University of Arkansas in the rank of Assistant Professor in Food Processing and Packaging. Currently, besides teaching Food Processing, the author leads a research program on Green Food Processing with focus on the development of technologies that minimize the environmental impact of food processing plants and create sustainable practices for the food industry. Some of his research interests are:

• The replacement of energy intensive processes by alternative technologies
• Utilization of co-products from the food industry and agricultural commodities to generate value-added products
• Use of waste streams to produce or isolate valuable compounds or fuel
• Process Optimization
• Green technologies applied to food processing and packaging

The author has a very well rounded and diverse academic background in the areas of management, chemical engineering, food sciences, and the environmental. This background – that is strongly complemented with industrial experience in the largest protein animal producer in the world – gives Dr. Morawicki a clear view of the broad picture that is necessary to write a book of this nature as a single author.