Karen A. Beitler
Food chemistry is about how food is processed, prepared and distributed. Basic food chemistry is a study of how water, carbohydrate, proteins and lipids work together to form the food we consume. This unit explores basic food chemistry and attempts to make connections between the chemistry of food and the complexity of life. Three components of food; carbohydrates, proteins and lipids are each composed from similar chains of monomers, along with some other elements, are organized to create large molecules with unique and specific properties. In food chemistry these are the macromolecules. All macromolecules have as their basic foundation the molecules of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. The wide variety of the protein macromolecules, add nitrogen and side groups of other molecules. Living things are fundamentally made from carbohydrates, proteins and lipids in a multitude of combinations that, along with water, not only make up unique species but also unique individuals within each of these species.
The fourth macromolecule of biology is the nucleic acids. This macromolecule contains the blueprint to instruct the processes that make each individual unique. This paper will not include this macromolecule because instruction about the nucleic acids would be longer than can be addressed here. While nucleic acids certainly have a place in the formation of foods we eat, nucleic acids are not relevant to food except in the essence of the blueprint which makes up all living molecules. Nucleic acids are the code for long chains of amino acids that make up proteins. The business of amino acids within each individual cell is complex and serves as the intelligence, reasoning library and processing center of life.