Clean label ingredients are here to stay as consumers increasingly demand safe, healthy foods. As a result, the food industry needs to create or re-formulate some of their products and processes in order to fit to consumers’ demands. It is clear that “clean” products’ sales keep rising while traditional products’ sales decline. Clean label encompasses a broad range of concepts from transparency, all-natural, organic, non-GMO, free-from, to locally grown. Clean label also demands the food industry to be sustainable as well as fair-trade and humane. The achievement of these objectives includes the use of new nutrient sources, the development of new processing technologies and the development of new innovative products targeted for the population groups with specific dietary needs such as vegetarians, the elderly, diabetes sufferers and those with cognitive function deficiencies. 

Clean Label Ingredients and Processes for the Food Industry aims to foster the development of innovative food processes and products in reply to consumer demands for a clean label food industry. The book is focused on the three main aspects of food development:

• Raw materials and ingredients (new materials and ingredients; by-products, new extraction technologies)
• Processing and production (gelification mechanisms; emulsification processes; non-thermal technologies; 3D food printing)
• Packaging and shelf-life (sustainable packaging, labeling, alternative storage)

This is the only text currently on the market to extensively over the clean label concept throughout the entire food chain from the raw materials to the process, aiding companies in addressing and implementing the clean label concept in their products. 

João Miguel Ferreira da Rocha is a Researcher in the Chemistry and Technology Network and Green Chemistry Laboratory in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Faculty of Sciences at the University of Porto in Porto, Portugal 

Miguel Ângelo Parente Ribeiro Cerqueira is a Staff Researcher in the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga, Portugal 

António Augusto Martins de Oliveira Soares Vicente is an Associated Professor at Habilitation Biological Engineering Department at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal

 José António Couto Teixeira, Professor, Biological Engineering Department, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal