The present disclosure relates to image processing apparatus and method that can suppress the increase in the load of processing multi-wavelength data. A subject is imaged to generate multi-wavelength data that is image data including four or more wavelength components, the generated multi-wavelength data is encoded to generate encoded data of the multi-wavelength data, and the generated encoded data is transmitted. The present disclosure can be applied to, for example, an image processing apparatus, an image encoding apparatus, an image decoding apparatus, an imaging element, an imaging apparatus, or the like.