Which techniques are used when preparing food?
We often have to process or transform food before eating it.
Various techniques are used:

• Mechanical techniques such as cutting, peeling, sieving, etc.
• Thermal techniques such as drying, melting, crystallising, etc.
• Biochemical techniques, where the aim is to destabilise the molecular or cellular structure of food, for example when curdling milk.

How is rice processed?
Mechanical techniques are used to remove the hard husk from grains of rice. In the past, sheaves of rice were threshed on a board and then the grains were separated from their husks with a pestle and mortar.
Today, rice is husked in industrial rice mills, using rubber rollers. The rice is then whitened by abrasion of the outer layers.

How are grains of wheat processed?
Wheat is prepared by alternating the mechanical techniques of grinding and sieving.
In the past, millstones were used to grind wheat into flour.

Nowadays, the grains are ground in industrial mills. They pass through fluted steel rollers and the flour is then sieved to eliminate the pieces of husk.

Do cultural habits influence how food is prepared?
Cultural habits may influence the way food is prepared. This is the case for the way raw fish is chopped and sliced in Japan.

For halal and kosher meat products, the animal must have its throat cut and be bled quickly.