Computer-aided food engineering (CAFE) can reduce resource use in product, process and equipment development, improve time-to-market performance, and drive high-level innovation in food safety and quality. Yet, CAFE is challenged by the complexity and variability of food composition and structure, by the transformations food undergoes during processing and the limited availability of comprehensive mechanistic frameworks describing those transformations. Here we introduce frameworks to model food processes and predict physiochemical properties that will accelerate CAFE. We review how investments in open access, such as code sharing, and capacity-building through specialized courses could facilitate the use of CAFE in the transformation already underway in digital food systems.

计算机辅助食品工程 (CAFE) 可以减少产品、工艺和设备开发中的资源使用，缩短上市时间，并推动食品安全和质量方面的高水平创新。然而，CAFE 面临着食物成分和结构的复杂性和可变性、食物在加工过程中经历的转变以及描述这些转变的综合机制框架的有限可用性的挑战。在这里，我们引入了框架来模拟食品过程并预测将加速 CAFE 的物理化学特性。我们回顾了对代码共享等开放获取的投资以及通过专业课程进行的能力建设如何促进 CAFE 在数字食品系统已经在进行的转型中的使用。