Conclusions and Future Directions

Abstract

Thermal processing is an important operation in food industry to ensure microbiological safety, eliminate anti-nutritional factors, and enable the development of desirable profiles of color and flavor attributes of food. However, thermal processing also gives rise to potentially hazardous by-products which may be a significant health risk for humans in the long run. With the development of analytical technology, significant improvements have been achieved in the area of hazardous substances produced during thermal processing of foods, including the detection methods, the formation mechanisms, and the mitigation strategies. Many research efforts have been devoted to the establishment of strategies to reduce the content of chemical hazards without undesirable impact on the quality of finalized food products. The knowledge about these chemical hazards reported in food science in the past decades may increase our understanding about these thermal processing-induced hazards and finally improve safety and quality of thermally-processed foods.