A process is a defined series of technical or scientific actions that transforms inputs into outputs; as a verb, to process food means to treat it so it keeps longer, becomes safer, or grows more palatable. Food processes range from ancient and simple, drying, salting, fermenting, to modern and complex, extrusion, high-pressure treatment, aseptic packaging. Every process is a deliberate manipulation of physics, chemistry, and biology: heat destroys microbes, cold arrests them, acid and salt create hostile environments, packaging excludes oxygen and contamination. The term carries cultural baggage, with “processed” often used pejoratively, but processing includes both the ultra-processed snacks of public health concern and the pasteurisation, milling, and canning that make food safe, affordable, and available year-round. Judging a process requires asking what it does, not merely that it exists.