Multi-criteria reverse engineering (MRE) has arisen from the cross-fertilization of advances in mathematics and shifts in social demand. MRE, thus, marks a progressive switch (a) from empirical to formal approaches able to simultaneously factor in diverse parameters, such as environment, economics, and health; (b) from mono-criterion optimization to multi-criteria decision analysis; (c) from forward engineering, observing the results of process conditions, to reverse engineering, selecting the right process conditions for a target output. The food sector has been slow to adopt reverse engineering, but interest is surging now that the industry is looking to shift production towards personalized food. MRE has followed a heterogeneous development trajectory and found applications in different disciplines. The scope of this review spans MRE applications in the food sector covering food packaging and food consumption and focuses on demonstrating potentialities of MRE in a complex field like food. We explain how MRE enables the development of sustainable processes, looking at similar approaches used in sectors other than food. Building on this extensive review, we sketch out some guidelines on approaches to be used in future MRE applications in food, working up from the problem statement.

多准则逆​​向工程（MRE）是数学进步与社会需求转移的交叉应用。因此，地雷危害教育标志着（a）从经验方法到形式方法的逐步转变，能够同时考虑各种参数，例如环境，经济和健康；（b）从单准则优化到多准则决策分析；（c）从正向工程（观察过程条件的结果）到逆向工程，为目标输出选择正确的过程条件。食品行业采用逆向工程的步伐一直很慢，但是由于该行业正在寻求将生产转向个性化食品，因此人们的兴趣正在激增。MRE遵循不同的发展轨迹，并在不同学科中得到了应用。审查的范围涵盖食品包装中的MRE应用，涵盖食品包装和食品消费，并且重点展示MRE在食品等复杂领域中的潜力。我们将探讨除食品之外的其他行业所采用的类似方法，从而说明MRE如何促进可持续流程的发展。在此广泛审查的基础上，我们从问题陈述中总结出了一些有关将来在食品中的MRE应用中使用的方法的准则。