Food Processing
Can be defined as “the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food for consumption by humans or animals”.
Common food processing techniques include :-
Removal of unwanted outer layers, such as potato peeling or the skinning of peaches
- Brine mixing & storage equipment
- Chopping or slicing e.g. diced carrots.
- Mincing and macerating
- Liquefaction, such as to produce fruit juice
- Fermentation e.g. in beer breweries
- Emulsification
- Cooking, such as boiling, broiling, frying, steaming or grilling
- Deep frying
- Baking
- Mixing
- Addition of gas such as air entrainment for bread or gasification of soft drinks
- Proofing
- Spray drying
- Pasteurisation
When designing processes for the food industry the following performance parameters may be taken into account:
- Hygiene, e.g. measured by number of micro-organisms per ml of finished product
- Energy consumption, measured e.g. by “ton of steam per ton of sugar produced”
- Minimization of waste, measured e.g. by “percentage of peeling loss during the peeling of potatoes'
- Labour used, measured e.g. by ”number of working hours per ton of finished product”
- Minimisation of cleaning stops measured e.g. by “number of hours between cleaning stops”