Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by extracting raw materials with water, boiling (usually with hops), and fermenting. In many countries, by law beer can only consist of water, malt, hops, and yeast.
Spirits are alcoholic beverages produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. The most important components in distillation are moisture, protein, oil and starch.
Wine is produced by transforming sugars into alcohol during fermentation of grape must. It is composed mainly of water, ethanol, sugars, and acids but can also contain other chemical compounds that vary in concentration and can be very influential on the sensory properties of the final product.
Butter is a dairy product composed of up to 80% butterfat as well as milk proteins and water. Butterfat is a mixture of triglyceride, an ester derived from glycerol and fatty acids which vary in different types of triglycerides.
Cheese is a dairy product derived from milk and is produced in a variety of flavors and textures. It comprises proteins and fat from milk and forms by coagulation of the milk fat casein. The milk can be either acidified or the enzyme rennet can be added to cause the coagulation.
The cocoa bean is the seed of the tropical cacao tree and is used to make cocoa powder, chocolate from cocoa liquor, and cocoa liquor. Worldwide production of cocoa has grown by nearly 200% in the last forty years to reach over 4.5 million metric tons in 2013.
Milk is a nutritive beverage mostly obtained from dairy cows, although it is obtained from camels, goats, water buffalo, and reindeer in different parts of the world. In the United States and many other industrialized countries, raw milk is processed before human consumption.
Yogurt is a fermented milk product that contains the characteristic bacterial cultures Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. It was accidentally invented in an early form thousands of years ago from curded goat and sheep milk. By definition, yogurt must contain at least 8.25% solids that are not fat.
Coffee is first harvested as ripe berries and can have a moisture content over 60% before going through multiple drying processes that result in green coffee beans which are mixed and roasted to create the final product. Principle quality parameters include moisture, blend ratio, roasting degree, and caffeine.
Soft drinks consist primarily of carbonated water, sugar, and flavorings. The carbonated soft drink has emerged as the most prominent segment within the non-alcoholic beverage industry and represents over one-third of the global demand in the market.
Fruit juice is made from a wide variety of fruits, including oranges, apples, grapes, cranberries, grapefruits, tomatoes, bayberries, and pineapples. In the United States, the term “fruit juice” can only be legally used to describe a product that is 100% fruit juice.
Dry beans or common beans refers to varieties of beans other than green beans, string beans, and soybeans. The global dry beans market is projected to register a CAGR of 4.3% during the period from 2021 to 2026.
A cereal is any cultivated grass grown for the edible components of its grain. The term can also refer to the resulting grain itself, which can more specifically be called the cereal grain. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop.
Corn is a domesticated grass that originated approximately seven thousand years ago in what is now Mexico when humans first learned to cross-pollinate plants and slowly turned a nondescript grass called teosinte into plump and productive modern corn. It is also referred to as maize and in general, the two terms are synonymous.
Flour is a powder that is made by grinding grain and is used to make an assortment of foods. It can also be made from roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flour milling is grinding grains between stones or steel wheels.
Oilseeds are defined as the seed (endosperm) of any of several plants that are used commercially as a source of vegetable oil and can also refer to the plant that yields any such seed. Examples include but are not limited to groundnuts/peanuts, sunflower, sesame, safflower, linseed, soybean, rapeseed/canola, and palm kernel oil.
Rice is an edible starchy grain and the grass plant from which is it produced. Approximately one-half of the world population is wholly dependent on rice as a staple food and 95% of the world’s rice crop is consumed by humans, making it by far the most widely consumed food in the world.
Wheat is a grass that is widely cultivated for its cereal grain seed and is a worldwide staple food. The grain is often milled into flour and used to make foods like bread, pasta, noodles, cereals, crackers, pancakes, numerous dessert foods, and many others.