I came across the second edition of “Introduction to Food Engineering” by Profs. Singh
and Heldman in the early 1990s shortly after graduating with a B.S. in Chemical
Engineering. I was hired at an engineering firm dedicated to the design and construction
of food processing plants and needed to learn about food engineering. The excellent
description of unit operations for food processing helped me hit the ground running in
my first professional job. I met Profs. Singh and Heldman in 1997 as a graduate student
attending the Conference of Food Engineering where they presented their pioneer
remote laboratories as tools for distance research and education. During my first years as
assistant professor at the University of Florida, I had the opportunity to discuss with
Prof. Singh the challenges of teaching engineering principles to food science students
who, by curriculum design, are exposed to very few mathematics courses. During the past
eight years I have used the third and fourth editions as references for my own teaching of
Citrus Processing Technology. Written for food scientists, it is difficult to imagine any
food science or food engineering professional in the US who has not used “Introduction
to Food Engineering” as a textbook or a reference. Earlier editions of this book have been
translated to Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Macedonian, and Albanian. I even
know of a retired engineer who solved some of the problems and exercises to keep his
mind active.