FOOD ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION NON-INTENSIVE CALCULI

Information intensity is defined as the amount of information which is needed for the realistic application of a corresponding formal tool. A high information intensity is desirable because it influences the mo del accuracy. A low information intensity is preferred when a high inf ormation intensity requires more information items than are available and this is usually the case in food engineering. Fuzzy models seem to be a useful extension of formal tools used in food engineering. Howev er, even fuzzy sets could be prohibitively information intensive. Ther efore the range of available formal tools must be considerably broader . This paper introduces qualitative and semiqualitative models and rou gh sets. Each formal tool is briefly characterised and its potential r easoning and discriminative power are demonstrated by examples.