The development of effective contact devices for heat and mass transfer apparatuses, which allow increasing the intensity of heat and mass transfer processes, reducing the size and cost of technological equipment, is an important practical task of the modern food industry. In this regard, the high efficiency of foam contact devices is noted, due to the developed specific surface and low hydraulic resistance. In the course of the study, a general classification of these devices has been proposed; schematic diagrams of the constructions of foam packings and trays have been given, a brief comparative analysis of their application area has been carried out. The main stages of calculation of highly efficient heat and mass transfer apparatuses with cellular plastic contact devices, including the determination of the basic geometrical characteristics of cellular materials, packing height (plate thickness), number of packing sections (number of plates), hydraulic resistance of packed and plate apparatus, have been described in detail. An example of an engineering calculation of a distillation heat and mass transfer apparatus with packed and plate-shaped foam contact devices for the separation of a binary mixture "ethyl alcohol - water" has been considered. The results of the calculation are presented in tabular and graphical form and allow us to conclude that it is most expedient to use packed foam contact devices with smaller dimensions and hydraulic resistance.