Computer-aided food engineering

Computer-aided food engineering (CAFE) can reduce resource use in product, process and equipment development, improve time-to-market performance, and drive high-level innovation in food safety and quality. Yet, CAFE is challenged by the complexity and variability of food composition and structure, by the transformations food undergoes during processing and the limited availability of comprehensive mechanistic frameworks describing those transformations. Here we introduce frameworks to model food processes and predict physiochemical properties that will accelerate CAFE. We review how investments in open access, such as code sharing, and capacity-building through specialized courses could facilitate the use of CAFE in the transformation already underway in digital food systems. Computer-aided food engineering (CAFE) drives high-level innovations in food safety and quality. The multiscale structure of foods requires novel modelling paradigms. This Review explores current CAFE modelling frameworks and computational approaches and the challenges to introducing computer-aided engineering in food-manufacturing processes.