Acknowledgements Free

This book’s original objective, in the 1980s, was to provide background material for school teachers called upon to teach “food chemistry”, a newly developed addition to the sixth form chemistry syllabus. However, it quickly became apparent that students of food science and related disciplines at polytechnics and universities also found it useful. To my surprise, this initial success has continued over the years, culminating in this seventh edition, with a three-fold increase in size, translations into several languages, and adoption as a course text in universities and colleges around the world. This success is owed to a number of factors, particularly the ongoing enthusiastic support from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Janet Freshwater, now Associate Publisher, has been my mentor and friend ever since, newly graduated, she was called upon to look after the third edition.

All this could not have been achieved without four decades of encouragement and support from my wife, Ann, and other members of my family. Over this period of time, I have enjoyed the advice and encouragement of innumerable friends and colleagues, starting with Dr David Rosie, who thoroughly reviewed the first edition. Dr (ultimately Emeritus Professor) Martin Chaplin, who joined me at South Bank Polytechnic (now London South Bank University) in 1988, has been a source of advice ever since. In particular, his contributions to the water chapter have proved invaluable. I first met Dr Lucy Foster when she was an undergraduate student on the BSc Food Science course at South Bank in the late 1980s. However, more recently, she has been able to enlighten me on many of the most recent developments in food chemistry, particularly its regulatory aspects.

I must also express my thanks to Professor Richard Pagni, of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, for contributing such a generous Foreword to this edition.

Tom Coultate