In humans, taste buds on the tongue have sensory receptors that detect the qualities of water-soluble chemicals in food and convert (or transduce) those stimuli to electrical signals. Nerves then carry the signals to the brain, which processes them and evokes perceptions of the taste qualities of foods, such as sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami (savoriness). The sensing mechanism of taste is one means by which humans are able to recognize whether food is safe for consumption or spoiled and unsafe. Humans (professional tasters) have long been used in industry to help evaluate the quality of manufactured foods and beverages because the acuteness and complexity of the sense of taste can convey information that other analytical instrumentation cannot. See also: Analytical chemistry; Chemoreception; Food manufacturing; Food science; Sensation; Sense organ; Signal transduction; Taste; Tongue; Umami taste receptor

Food waste occurs at all levels of the supply chain and beyond, from farm to table, for reasons ranging from spoilage to over-buying. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service defines food waste as “the edible amount of food, postharvest, that is available for human consumption but is not consumed for any reason.” As such, the USDA Economic Research Service estimates that, in the United States, food waste amounts to 30 to 40 percent of the food supply. Worldwide, the United Nations estimates that about 17 percent of the total food production is wasted. See also: Food

Pasta comes in various sizes and shapes, ranging from long and flat (such as linguine and spaghetti) to short types in the shape of shells (conchiglie), corkscrews (fusilli), and many others. Shaped pastas contain a larger volume of air, resulting in greater packaged volume than flat pastas, because shaped pastas take up more space inside the package. Comparing packages of spaghetti (flat) and rigatoni (tube-shaped pasta) manufactured by the Italian food company Barilla, a 454-gram package of spaghetti has a volume of 593 cm³ (92 in.²), while a 454-gram package of rigatoni has a volume of 1479 cm³ (229 in.³), which is about 2.5 times greater. Reducing the volume of food packaging overall is critical to meeting the demands of a sustainable future on Earth. See also: Food packaging

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), of all the food produced worldwide, 14 percent—estimated at approximately USD$300 billion—goes to waste each year along the food supply chain, from farms to the retail market, while an additional 17 percent is wasted at the retail and consumer levels. At farms, food may be lost due to drought, pests, or overproduction. At the retail and consumer levels, food waste often results from overbuying due to poor planning or badly managed inventory. Food waste poses both a food security problem in terms of access to adequate food and nutrition and an environmental/sustainability problem in terms of energy use, water use, water pollution, and greenhouse gas production. See also: Agriculture; Environmental impact of food waste; Food; Greenhouse effect; Nutrition; Sustainability; Water conservation; Water pollution

Organic foods are plant and animal products certified as having been produced by organic farming practices, which generally prohibit the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormone, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and which encourage the use of natural farming practices such as crop rotation, manure for fertilizer, and outdoor access for animals. Prohibited substances and best farming practices vary among countries where organic food is produced. See also: Agricultural science (animal); Agricultural science (plant); Agricultural soil and crop practices; Agriculture; Antibiotic; Fertilizer; Genetically engineered plants; Genetically modified crops; Pesticide

On October 9, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of seven synthetic food flavoring additives: benzophenone, ethyl acrylate, eugenyl methyl ether, myrcene, pulegone, pyridine, and styrene. The use of benzophenone as a plasticizer in materials in contact with food was also banned. According to the FDA, the seven substances were banned because they were found to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Although the ban is effective immediately, the FDA has given food manufacturers 24 months to find suitable replacement ingredients. See also: Food; Food packaging; Mutagens and carcinogens; Pyridine; Spice and flavoring; Styrene

Food packaging prevents contamination and extends the shelf-life of food products, making food safe and available to the public. Common food-packaging materials include metals, glass, paper, and plastics. Of these, metals, glass, and recyclable paper are the most sustainable, and plastics are the least. Plastics, however, have become the predominant packaging material for fresh fruit and vegetables, as a result of their light weight and reasonable ability to prevent spoilage. Because plastic waste pollution is a serious environmental problem, researchers are searching for sustainable packaging materials and starting to report on promising alternatives. See also: Food; Food packaging; Plastic waste pollution; Sustainability

CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is being applied extensively in genetic engineering. Using CRISPR–associated enzyme 9 (Cas9) and guide RNA (gRNA), scientists have the ability to utilize CRISPR to easily and accurately genetically modify organisms to contain, remove, or alter a selected gene sequence. There has been promising research suggesting that, due to CRISPR’s ability to edit the genome of an organism, CRISPR could be used to treat a variety of diseases and disorders in the human body—including cancer. In fact, scientists have already used CRISPR to treat certain types of cancers, such as leukemia and lung cancer. A new study indicates that CRISPR may also be the answer to a cure for endometrial cancer, which is responsible for the deaths of nearly 8000 women annually, according to the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. See also: Cancer; CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing; Enzyme; Genetic engineering; Ribonucleic acid (RNA)