Food Processing Machinery
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”