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Food Industry and Innovation

Importance of food manufacturing

• Extend the shelf life
- Undesirable chemical and microbiological reactions
- Reduce biochemical reactions
• Improve palatability
• Improve nutritional content
• Create foods for speciality groups

What factors are important in food preservation?

Food composition
• Moisture content
• Water activity
• Acidity

Environmental factors
• Gas composition
• Temperature

Processing methods and applications

• Removal of moisture
• Low temperature
• Thermal processes
• Biological and chemical processes

Overview of Australian Food Industry

Status of Australian processed food and beverage industry

• Australia’s largest manufacturing industry
• Farm and fisheries production $42.8 billion
• Grains (33%) meat (31%) and have consistently been the two largest export
categories followed by fruits and vegetables (18) and dairy exports (10%)
• Total retail food sales approx. $141 billion and 54.5% total retail spending

Areas for innovation

• Australian food industry needs to work smarter
- Test and adopt new products and processes throughout the food system
• Emerging global trends present opportunities to increase market share and globally
competitive
- Responding to different consumer demands
- Participating in global supply chain
- Taking up new technologies
- Adopting to a changing regulatory environment
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Requirements of the food manufacturing sector

Opportunities for sustainable food manufacture

Water sustainability
• Water use minimisation
- Reduction in uncontrolled use
- Reuse
- Recycling
- Layout design improvement
-
Strategies to improve the Australian Food Industry
CSIRO Food Future Flagship program
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The Food Futures Flagship is a collaboration involving CSIRO, industry and research partners
applying frontier technologies to high potential industries

CSIRO Food Future Flagship program

Research areas focused
Future grains, grain-based foods and feed
• provide high value grains and oilseeds that can be exported from Australia,
principally to South East Asian markets
• add value through the Australian food industry for both the domestic and export
markets
The research focuses on two principal areas
• Low digestibility carbohydrates in grains for human health- BarleyMx
• New sources of omega-3 fatty acids- High omega-3 canola

Rural research and development program

Over $190 million, 2014-2022)
• the design and implementation of new technologies, production or processing
techniques
• the adoption of food production or processing technologies developed overseas
• Premium and value added products

Food innovations- 3D printed food

• Personalised foods
- Tailored shape and dimensions
- Tailored nutritional content
- Tailored sensory features
• Added functionality
• Sustainable- reduce waste
• Novel food structures- ability to use a range of food ingredients

Innovation models

Week 2: Unit operations in food manufacturing, Post-harvest handling and preparation of

materials

Storage and transport of raw materials

• To maintain the availability of seasonal produce
• Avoid spoilage during the storage and transportation- microbiological, respiration of
fruits, rancidity development in fatty foods, physical damage
• Control of:
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Composition of atmosphere
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- Light

Preparation of materials: CLEANING

• Removes contamination from food
• Should be carried out at earliest opportunity to maximise benefit
• Reduces food wastage- preventing contamination of bulk of material
• Improves the economics of processing
• Protects the consumer

Cleaning

Wet cleaning
• Soaking, spraying, flotation washing, ultrasonic cleaning
• Removes soil from root crops, dust and pesticide residues from soft fruits or
vegetables
• Main considerations
- temperature of cleaning water influences effectiveness but may accelerate
chemical and microbiological spoilage
- can produce large volumes of effluent with high levels of dissolved and
suspended solids

Dry Cleaning
• Used for small particle size, high mechanical strength products with low moisture
content
• Less chance of microbial proliferation
• Produces dust
- health hazard
- explosion hazard
- can re-contaminate product
• Air classifiers, magnetic separators and screen separators

Removing metal fragment contamination

• Most foods pass through metal detectors prior to packing
• Ferrous metals removed by permanent or ferrous magnets
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• All metals and metal impregnated grease identified by distortion of strong

electromagnetic fields
- sets off alarm
• X-rays can detect metal contamination

Sorting
• Size
• Shape
• Weight
• Colour

Shape and size sorting

• Increased ease of processing
• Increased retail value
• Size sorting by sieving or screening
• Flat bed screen (sieve)
- can be multi-deck with horizontal mesh screens of varying aperture stacked
inside a gyrating, vibrating frame
- widely used for flour, sugar, spices
- problems with screen blinding, and agglomeration due to moisture
Colour sorting
• Foods fed into chute one item at a time
• Food illuminated and reflected light measured against pre-set standards using photo
detector
• Defective foods separated by short blast of compressed air

Image processing
• Used to sort on length, diameter, surface defects, orientation and colour
• Video cameras record surface imagery that is recorded on computer
• Imagery compared to pre-programmed specifications
• Item rejected or moved to a group with similar specifications
Peeling
• Flash steam peeling
- Root crops exposed to high pressure steam in sealed rotating vessel for 15-30 sec
- Pressure released causes steam to form under skin which ‘flashes off’
- Advantages
§ Low water consumption and minimum product loss (8-18%) with good
appearance
§ high throughout and automated
§ concentrated easily disposable waste

• Abrasion peeling
- Food fed onto rollers or into a rotating bowl lined with carborundum
- water used to wash away the skin
- Used for potatoes and onions
- Disadvantages
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§ higher product loss (up to 25%)

§ high volume dilute waste
• Knife peeling
- Stationary blades on surface of rotating product of vice versa
- Used for citrus fruits as easily peeled and little damage

• Caustic peeling
- 1-2% sodium hydroxide (lye) at 100-120oC
- Softened skin is removed by high pressure water sprays
- Product losses approx. 17%

Size Reduction
• Increase in surface area to volume ratio
- improves efficiency of drying, heating, cooling, extraction
• Standardise particle size range for standardised product functionality
- icing sugar, cornstarch – dried soup and cake mixes

Size Reduction of food

Homogenisation
• Widely used before pasteurisation and UHT sterilisation of milk and in production of
salad creams, ice cream and some sauces
- reduction in size (0.5 - 3.0 micron) and increase in number of particles of the
dispersed phase
Homogenisation Equipment
• High speed mixers
- shearing action by blades
• Pressure homogenisers
- high pressure pump forces liquid through tiny gap resulting in very high velocity
widely used before pasteurisation and UHT sterilisation of milk and in production
of salad creams, ice cream and some sauces

Effect of homogenisation on food quality

• Viscosity and texture
- milk homogenisation – reduce size of the gat to provide increased viscosity and
mouth feel
- meat emulsions (sausage or pate)
• Colour
- larger number of globules in homogenised milk causes greater reflectance, light
scattering and increase in whiteness
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• Flavour and aroma

- volatile compound more finely dispersed and greater contact with taste buds
• Nutritional value
- improved digestibility of fats and oils due to reduction in particle size (eg baby
food)
• Safety
- risk of dispersing pathogenic bacteria throughout food therefore need careful
further processing and packaging

Blanching and sulphiting of fruits and vegetables

Blanching-
• Pre-treatment
- Mild heat treatment to inactivate undesirable enzymes, remove intercellular gases
• Most vegetables and some fruits prior to freezing,

• Reduction in contaminating microorganisms

• Facilitate tissue softening
• Food rapidly heated to pre-set temperature
- held for pre-set time
- cooled rapidly to ambient temperature

Effects on food
• Colour – brighter colour
- Sodium carbonate, calcium oxide - to retain green colour
• Texture- soften
- Calcium chloride – to retain firmness
• Under blanching
- off flavours and discolouration during storage

Sulphiting
• Sulphur dioxide or sulphite salts such as sodium/ potassium sulphite or metabisulphite.
(added to foods to control browning (potato, dehydrated fruits)
• Retain natural colours
• Inhibit and control micro-organisms in fresh fruits and fruit pulps (jam processing)
• The use of sulphites is Regulated by FSANZ.
- Dried fruits and vegetables- Sulphur dioxide and sodium and potassium sulphites
(220 221 222 223 224 225 228) - permitted level 3000 mg/kg
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Refrigeration Modified atmospheric storage, minimal processing

The Cold Chain

• The cold chain is maintained by an unbroken chain of refrigeration process, from
food production through processing, transport, distribution and retail.
• Correct maintenance of the Cold Chain will result in best product quality and
hygiene, least weight loss and best appearance and colour

Importance of low temperature

• Reduce microbial activity.
• Reduce rate of undesirable chemical reactions.
• Reduce post harvest metabolic activities (ripening & respiration) of plants and post
slaughter activities (rigor mortis) of animal tissues.
• Minimal damage to sensory quality

Cold storage- 10-15ºC

Refrigeration – 0-7ºC
Freezing- below 0ºC

Refrigeration
Typical foods needing refrigerated storage
0-1ºC – Fresh meat, fish, sausages
0-5ºC – Pasteurised milk, cream, yoghurt, prepared salads.
0-7ºC – Cooked meat, cured meat, butter, cheese, soft drinks.

Main steps in refrigeration

• Remove initial heat from perishable foodstuffs.
• Keep food cool during processing.
• Storage of food products (control of temperature, RH, Air circulation and gaseous
concentration).
• Transport and distribution to retail outlets.
• Retail outlets.

Factors influencing the refrigeration conditions

• Variety of the plant
• Rate of respiration of plant materials
• Physiological factors
• Condition of harvest or slaughter of animals

Refrigerated storage of foods

Requirements –
• Prevent desiccation – high RH levels for fruits and vegetables
• Use of correct temperature
- to prevent microbial action- highly perishable foods need to refrigerate
around 1ºC
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- to prevent physiological disorders – tropical fruits and vegetables need

higher temperatures to prevent discolouration
- e.g. for Banana- above 10ºC

Refrigeration methods and equipment

• Mechanical refrigerators
Four basic elements
Evaporator, compressor, condenser and expansion valve.
• Properties of common refrigerants
Low boiling point and high latent heat of vaporisation.
Low toxicity
Non-flammable.
(ammonia, CO2, fluorocarbon)

In mechanical refrigeration, heat from the food is absorbed by a refrigerant in the

• condenser
• evaporator
• expansion valve
• compressor

Other methods

• Vacuum cooling
• Hydro cooling
• Scraped surface heat exchangers

Benefits other than preservation

• Ripening of cheese
• Ageing of beef
• Ageing of wines
• Ease of peeling
• Reduce changes in flavour during extraction – fruits
• Ease of slicing meat and bread
• Precipitate waxes from oils
• Increases CO2 solubility- soft drinks

Effect of refrigeration on food quality

• Enzymatic browning
• Lipolysis
• Colour and flavour deterioration
• Hardening- solidification of fats
• Retogradation of starches
• Lipid oxidation- cook-chill products
• Syneresis in sauces and gravies
• Moisture migration
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• Nutritional losses – Vitamin C

Modified atmospheric storage

Importance

• Reduce respiration/delay ripening

• Control biochemical and enzyme activity to slow down respiration and ripening
Aerobic Respiration
CHO+O2 à CO2 + H2O
- Refrigeration not enough to retard ripening
- Harmful for tropical sub-tropical plants.

Anaerobic respiration

Substrate + CO2 à acids, alcohols, aldehydes, ketone

In sealed impermeable package, O2 is rapidly used up, CO2 builds up, anaerobic respiration
will take place.

• Off-flavours and odours will develop

• Risk of the growth of anaerobic food poisoning organisms such as Clostridium
botulinum.

If the packaging film is completely permeable the fruit or vegetables would not benefit from
modified atmospheres.
Raising the CO2 level 3-8%
Lowering the O2 level 2-15%

• Lower the rate of respiration

Slowing down ripening + senescence
• Slow down the rate of ethylene production
(Ethylene is a natural plant hormone involved in the control of ripening).
• Retard the growth of mould

Extend the storage/shelf life of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Methods of controlling the atmosphere

• Modifying the existing gases through respiratory activity
If the packaging film is semi permeable O2 and CO2 can diffuse through it, and an
equilibrium concentration of both gases is established – EMA or Passive MA

• Gas Flushing
Air is removed and replaced with a controlled mixture of gasses and the package is
heat sealed

• Vacuum packaging
• Removing excess gas through scavengers
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- O2, CO2 and Ethylene.

Packaging materials for MAP- Gas and water vapour permeability
EVOH, PVCD, PP, PE, Polyester, Amorphous nylon coated with antifogging agents

Quality changes in minimally processed fruits and vegetables

• As a result of peeling, grating and shredding many cells are broken and intercellular
products are released
- Physiological and biochemical changes
- Microbiological changes
- Nutritional changes
Processing stages
• High quality raw materials
• Minimise mechanical damage – sharp knives
• Cleaning washing
- Flowing or air bubbling water, preferably temperature below 5ºC.
Recommended quantity of water 5-10kg before peeling and 3-5kg after
peeling or cutting
- Sanitizing agents -100-200mg chlorine or citric acid/I.
- other compounds-chlorine dioxide, trisodium phosphate, hydrogen peroxide
• Browning inhibition
- Dipping into ascorbic acid/citric acid solutions
- EDTA- potato
• Packaging- MAP
- 2.5%CO2, 2.5% O2
- Permeable packaging materials to match product respiration rate.
- Edible coatings
• Storage conditions
- Refrigerated conditions 1-2ºC2

Week 4
Food Freezing
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Freezing
• The temperature of a food is reduced below its freezing point
• Water undergoes change in state to form ice crystals
• Concentration of solutes- reduced water activity

Commercially frozen foods

• Fruits (temperate)
• Vegetables (peas, beans, carrot, spinach)
• Fresh and processed fish and meat products
• Baked goods
• Prepared goods (pizza, ice cream, complete meals)

Changes to frozen foods during storage

• Degradation of pigments
• Loss of vitamins
• Residual enzyme activity
• Oxidation of lipids
• Re crystallisation
• Freezer burn

Solute concentration
• Change in pH, viscosity, redox potential in unfrozen liquor
• Individual solutes reach saturation point and crystallise out
• Eutectic temperature
- Glucose -5ºC , Sucrose -14ºC
• Glass transition
- Apple -41 to -42, vegetables -12 to -25
- Fish and meat -11 to -12
Volume changes
Water à Ice (9% volume increase)
Higher moisture – greater volume change
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Plant materials- absorb internally the volume increase

Fat and some solutes contract – reduce volume

Factors to be considered in food freezing

• Pre freezing treatments
- Blanching of vegetables, chemical treatments in fruits. Ageing of
meat
• Freezing conditions
- Freezing method
• Conditions of the frozen storage
- Control of conditions
• Thawing
- Method

Freezing methods
• Air freezing
- Chest freezer
- Blast freezer
- Spiral freezer
• Indirect contact freezing (cooled surface freezers)
- Plate freezer
- Scraped surface freezer

Plate freezing is suitable for

- Peas
- Potatoes
- Fish fingers
- Mango cubes

• Immersion freezing
- Propylene glycol, brine, glycerol, calcium chloride, sucrose
- Freezing points – 62% sucrose -21ºC
– 21% sodium chloride -18ºC

• Cryogenic freezers
- Cryogen with low BP and high Latent heat
- Liquid nitrogen – BP – 196ºC
- Carbon dioxide – BP – 78.5ºC
- Freon 12 (Dichlorodifluoromethane)

Slurry ice
Ice slurry for direct contact cooling of marine seafood and sealed foods

Shelf life of frozen foods

Shelf life of frozen foods
• Practical storage life:
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Duration of frozen food storage when the product remains acceptable for human
consumption.

• High-quality life (HQL)

Duration of frozen food storage until a statistically significant change in product
quality can be detected when comparing product to a reference

Thawing
• Water has a lower thermal conductivity than ice
• Thawing is a longer process than freezing
• Drip losses- cellular damage by slow freezing
• Enzyme activity and microbial activity
• Fast thawing- better quality

Environmental issues relating to low temperature preservation

• Ozone depletion (CFCs, HCFCs, e.g. R22)
• Direct global warming (HFCs, e.g. R404A)
• Indirect global warming (power consumption)
• Water usage
• Recommendations:
- Use natural refrigerants (HCs, NH3, CO2) where possible
- Minimize power consumption
- Recovery and re-use heat

Natural Refrigerants
• Natural refrigerants are substances that can be found in nature, and/or can be
assimilated by natural processes.
• Ammonia, NH3, R717
- Carbon dioxide, CO2, R744
- Hydrocarbons, such as propane, R290
- Secondary refrigerants such as
§ Glycols and Alcohols
§ Organic salts
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§ Ice slurries (phrase-change secondary)

§ CO2 (volatile secondary)
§ Water

Week 5: Thermal Processing

Pasteurisation
• Relatively mild heat treatment
• Usually performed below 100ºC
• Extends shelf life for several days (milk) or several months (bottled fruit)
• Inactivates enzymes
• Destroys relatively heat sensitive microorganisms (non-sporing bacteria, yeasts and
moulds)

Un-packaged liquids
• Plate heat exchangers
- Series of thin, vertical stainless steel plates with gap between, held in frame
- Liquid food and heating medium (steam/hot water) pumped through alternate
channels
- Heat transferred across stainless steel plate
- Countercurrent flow pattern
- High heat transfer
§ Plates corrugated to produce turbulence high velocity induced
§ High velocity induced by pumping

Milk Pasteurisation
• Cold milk pumped from balance tank to regeneration section where it is preheated by
hot milk already been pasteurised
• Heated to pasteurising temperature (72ºC) in heating section- held for required time (15
sec) in holding tube
• If correct temperature is not reached can be diverted back into balance tank for
repasteurisation
• Pasteurised food is cooled in regeneration section by incoming cold unpasteurised food
• Further cooled by chilled water before packaging
• Regeneration of heat- energy efficient

Equipment- Packaged food

• Beer and fruit juices often pasteurised after filling into containers
• Batch process- bottles are placed in crates and hated in hot water baths for set time then
removed and cooled with cold water
• Continuous version long narrow trough fitted with conveyor to carry containers through
heating and cooling stages

Effects on foods
• Acceleration of enzymatic browning
• Small loss of volatile aroma and flavour compounds
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• In fruit juices loss of Vit C and beta-carotene

- Minimised by prior de-aeration
• In milk, a slight loss of protein quality and vitamins

Heat sterilisation
• In container sterilisation (canning)
- Sufficiently high temperature & sufficiently long time to destroy microbial and
enzyme activity
- Substantial changes in nutritional and sensory properties
- Food technology aims to reduce damage by reducing processing time
• Ultra-high temperature (UHT) processes on unpackaged foods

UHT processing (Aseptic Processing)

• Liquid or small particulate foods
• Food heated in thin layers in heat exchanger
• Close control over sterilisation temperature and holding time
• Cooled in second heat exchanger
• Sterilise prior to filling
- Need sterile containers
- Need sterile atmosphere
• Quality high, long shelf life without refrigeration
• Processing conditions independent of container size
- Can use very large containers

Heat Exchangers
• Plate and tubular
• Scraped surface
• Tubular
• Steam injection
• Steam infusion

Process time
• Low acid foods – pH>4.5 , 130-150ºC for few seconds

Types of packaging
• Rigid- metal, glass
• Semi rigid – Plastic containers (tetra pack)
• Flexible pouches
• Packaging materials are presterilised using – high peroxide, UV light and heat during
thermal forming.

Critical factors in filling area

• Floors should be dry
• All air should be well filtered
• Only essential personal should be in filling room
• Employees should wear clean uniforms and single service hats
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• Light fixtures should be free from dirt and dust accumulation.

• No visitors allowed in the filling room

Canning
• Unit operations
- Pre-treatments (Blanching)
- Filling
- Exhausting
- Closing
- Retorting
- Cooling

Filling
Fill weight/ drained weight,
Consistency of the pack
Head space
Fill weight – weight of the solid portion of product without the liquid prior to thermal
processing.
Drained weight – weight of the solid portion of the product with the liquid drained after
thermal processing

Headspace
Volume, gaseous concentration, vacuum condition
• Headspace is normally controlled by filling the container from a chamber with a
predetermined volume (6-10% of the can volume)

Exhausting
• Removes the air from the container and create vacuum.
• Air remaining in the headspace contains oxygen which may interact with the product
increasing the rate of deterioration
• Methods
- Hot filling
- Exhaust box
- Steam injection: steam is injected into the container, headspace just prior to
application of the container closure
- Gas flush: an inert gas such as nitrogen is used to flush the air out of the
headspace

Closing
• Cans sealed by double seam

Processing- Batch retort

• Heating in a vessel containing pressurised steam
• Canning temperature- closer to 121ºC for low acid foods (pH > 4.5)
• Process time depends on the size of the container and heat transfer characteristics
of food
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• Cooling with water after sterilisation

Thermal process calculation

Length of time required to sterilise a food depends on
• Heat resistance of micro organisms
D, Z and F0
• Heat penetration characteristics of foods
- Cold point
- Heat penetration studies

Measuring heat penetration

• Using thermocouple fixed at thermal centre of container

Commercial sterility
• Calculated using heat resistance of microorganism and time and temperature of
heating
• Based on probability of survival of a single microorganism
• 12D process used when C. Botulinum is a risk
- Process reduces C. botulinum by 12 decimal reductions
- If originally 105 spores per container
- Reduced to 10-7 spores per container
- Equals 1 microorganism per 10 million containers

Critical factors in canning

• Fill weight, drained weight, headspace
• Product particle size, consistency viscosity, product maturity, product formulation
• Mechanical vacuum, % free liquid, % solids
• Product orientation in the container and container orientation in the retort
• Initial temperature, thermal processing temperature and time

Effects of heat sterilisation on foods

Colour
• Sterilised milk – slight colour change from fresh due to caramelisation, Maillard
browning and changes in the reflectivity of casein micelles
• Meat- oxymyoglobin to metmyoglobin
• Time- temp combination has substantial effect on most naturally occurring pigments
- Chlorophyll to pheophytin
- Carotenoids isomerised
- Anthocyanins degraded
- Loss can be corrected by synthetic colours
Flavour changes
Canned meat
• Produces over 600 flavour compounds
Fruits & Vegetables
• Degradation, recombination and volatilisation of aldehydes, ketones, lactones,
amino acids and organic acids
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Milk
• Cooked flavour
• Denaturation of whey proteins
• Formation of lactone and methyl ketones from lipids
Texture and viscosity
• Canned meats
- Coagulation and loss of WHC (water holding capacity) of proteins
- Hydrolysis of collagen and solublisation of resulting gelatine leads to
softening
- Melting and dispersion of fat
• Fruit and Vegetables
- Softening due to
§ Hydrolysis of pectins
§ Partial solublisation of hemicelluloses
§ Gelatinisation of starches
§ Calcium salts can be added to form insoluble calcium pectate and
increase firmness

Nutritional Value
§ Some loss of essential amino acids (lysine, tryptophan and methionine)
§ Vitamin losses e.g. Thiamine (50-75%)
§ Destruction of anti-nutritional factors can increase nutritional value of soya products
§ Nutrient losses during prolonged storage need to be considered in diets high in
sterilised foods

Week 6: Dehydration of foods & Extrusion

Dehydration (Drying)
• Application of heat under controlled conditions to remove the majority of water by
evaporation ( or in the case of freeze drying by sublimation)
• Extend the shelf life by reduction in water activity. Inhibits microbial and enzyme
activity.
• Reduction in weight and bulk of food reduces transport and storage costs.
• Provides greater variety and convenience
• Design and operation of equipment aims to prolong the shelf life while minimising
undesirable changes to sensory and nutritive qualities of food.

Drying using heated air

• Temperature of the food remains low in early stages of drying- ‘constant rate period’
- Rate of movement of water from interior matches rate of evaporation
• Temperature of food surface increases later in drying- ‘falling rate period’
- Rate of movement of. Water from interior less than evaporation rate
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- Surface dries out

- HEAT DAMAGE

Factors influencing drying

• Process conditions
- Temperature
- Air velocity
- Relative Humidity
- Pressure
• Food properties
- Composition
- Surface area

Drying Methods
• Hot air dryers
- Tray dryer
- Tunnel dryer
- Fluidised-bed dryer
- Spray dryer
• Heated surface dryers
- Shelf dryers
- Freeze dryers

Spray driers
Pre-concentrated food atomised to form tiny droplets
• Sprayed into current of heat air in large drying chamber
- Inlet temp 150-300ºC
• Feed rate controlled to give outlet air temp of 90-100ºC
• Rapid drying (1-10 sec) as large surface area of droplets
• Drying powder collected at base
- Fluidised bed drying often used to complete process
• Products include milk, egg, cheese powders, fruit juices, encapsulated flavours

Heated surface dryers

Drum (roller) dryer

• Heat supplied to food by conduction

- Thermal conductivity becomes low as food dries therefore need to dry in thin
layer
• Used for slurries which are too viscous or to large in particle size for spray drying
- Potato flakes, pre-cooked cereals, some dried fruits and purees, animal feed
formulations
• Generally replaced by spray driers

Osmotic dehydration
• Osmotic dehydration- foods are soaked in concentrated solutions of sugar or salt to
remove water by osmotic pressure
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Effect of dehydration on foods

• Water that is removed during processing cannot be replaced in exactly the same
manner. There is always some degradation or change that gives a loss of quality.
• The goal of drying technology is to minimise product changes, while optimising
process efficiency and minimising costs

Texture
• Gelatinisation of starch, crystallisation of cellulose ad localised variations in the
moisture.
• Rupture, compress and permanently distort the rigid cells- shrunken shrivelled
appearance
• Meat- Aggregation and denaturation of proteins and loss of water holding capacity
• Case hardening
- Evaporation of water causes concentration of solutes at the surface.
- Causes chemical and physical changes to surface and the formation of a hard-
impermeable skin (fruits, fish and meats).
- Reduces the rate of drying and produces a food with moist interior

Flavour and aroma

• Loss of volatile components from foods
• The extent of losses depends on-
- Temperature
- Vapour pressure of the volatiles.
• Oxidation of pigments, vitamins and lipids (storage)
MILK à RANCID FLAVOUR
CAROTENE à ODOUR OF VIOLET

• These changes are reduced by vacuum or gas packing, low temperature storage,
exclusion of light, low moisture contents, and addition of antioxidants

Colour
• High drying temperatures and longer drying times produce great pigment losses
Chlorophyll, Carotenoid
• Browning reactions
• Prevention by blanching and treatment of fruits with ascorbic acid, sulphur dioxide
and acids

Nutrients
• Wide variations
- Time – temperature combination
- Preparation procedure
- Storage conditions
• Vitamins
- Vitamin C the most sensitive.
- Thiamine – heat sensitive
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- Fat soluble vitamins – lost by fat oxidation.

• Proteins
- Digestibility and biological value
- Milk- Maillard reactions between Lysine and lactose
• Lipids
- Unsaturated fatty acids- oxidation

Extrusion Technology

Extrusion processing
• First introduced in plastics, rubber and metal industries.
• Introduced to the food industry to gelatinize starch in cereals.
• HTST process which combines several unit operations in a single reactor
• Diversified – breakfast cereals, snacks, infant foods, texturised foods.

Extrusion technology
Food material is forced to flow, under varieties of conditions, through a die which is
designed to form the ingredients.

Operation
• Raw materials are fed into the extruder barrel and conveyed along by the screw.
• Materials become compressed and cooked due to the increased pressure and high
temperature.
• The screw kneads the food into a semi solid, plasticised mass further along the barrel
• Shearing and pressure is increased
• Materials are then forces through restricted opening called die

Functions
• Dehydration
• Expansion
• Gelatinisation
• Shaping
• Shearing
• Texture alteration
• Flavour generation

Twin-screw extruders
• Expensive to operate
• Greater flexibility when it comes to raw materials
• Enable the operator to have better control over heat transfer
• Can handle oily, sticky or very wet materials, which would normally slip in a single-
screw extruder
• Can handle a mixture of particle sizes

Advantages
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• Versatility (Extruders are very cost effective for adding value to simple raw
materials)
• Energy efficiency
• Low production cost
• New foods
• High productivity & automated control
• High product safety and quality -HTST
• Improves protein digestibility – legume
• No effluent

Factors influence on product properties

• Extruder conditions
- Temperature
- Screw speed
- Screw configuration
- Feed moisture
- Die diameter

• Raw material properties

- Particle size
- Feed moisture
- Composition
§ Starch
§ Protein
§ Fat
§ Fibre
§ Sugars

Extruded food products

• Cereal- based products
- Expanded snack products
- Puffed breakfast cereals
- Soup and beverage bases, instant drinks
- Weaning foods
- Pre-gelatinised and modified starches
- Croutons
- Pasta products
- Pre-cooked composite flours

Extruded food products

• Sugar-based products
- Chewing gum
- Fruit gums
• Protein-based products
- Texturised vegetable protein (TVP)
- Sausage products, frankfurters, hot dogs
- Caseinates
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Opportunity to develop a range of functional products

Changes to food quality

• Depends on operating conditions and feed material properties
• HSTST have only minor effects on flavour and food colours
- Excessive heat or longer processing time
- Reactions with proteins, reducing sugars or metal ions
- Flavour volatilisation. Flavour ust be added to counteract the losses.

Nutritional changes
• Generally, losses are minimal in cold extrusion. HTST process with rapid cooling
causes relatively small losses.
• Vitamin losses in extruded foods vary according to the
- type of food, the moisture content,
- the temperature of processing and the holding time.
• Extruder temperature of 154ºC 95% retention of thiamine and little loss of
riboflavin, pyridoxine, niacin or folic acid in cereals
50% loss of ascorbic acid and carotene
• At high temperatures, amino acids and sugars can cause Maillard browning and
reduction in protein quality.
• Destruction of anti-nutritional components in soya products improves the nutritive
value of textures vegetable proteins.

Week 7: Food Concentration

Food Concentration
• Partial removal of moisture to a 20-50% level by evaporation, freeze concentration
or membrane concentration.
• Fruit juice concentrates. Vegetable purees, meat extracts, concentrated milk, syrup.
• Preservation- reduction in water activity and combination with other methods
• Recovery of by products from waste streams
• Purpose of concentration -
- Before dehydration, freezing
- Change flavour and colour (caramelised syrup)
- While preservation - sugar syrup

Evaporation
• Concentration of foods by application of heat
• Economical
• Changes in nutritional and sensory quality

Theory of evaporation
• Heat transferred from heating medium to food
• Temperature raised to boiling point
• Bubbles of vapour form in liquid
• Vapour removed from surface of boiling liquid
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Evaporation methods
• Evaporator consists of a heat exchanger and a means of separating the vapours
produced
• Types of evaporators
- Open pan evaporator
- Short tube evaporator
- Falling/rising film evaporator
- Plate evaporator
- Agitated film evaporator

Pan evaporators
• Large ‘saucepans’ used for sauce, gravy and jam manufacture
- Batch operation
- Lid for vacuum operation
- Stirrer or paddle
- Low heat transfer rates & energy efficiencies
§ Damage heat sensitive foods
- Low capital cost easy to operate & maintain

Long tube evaporator (falling film)

• Vertical bundle of tubes each up to 5cm in diameter
- Enclosed in a stem-heated shell 3-15m high
• Feed introduced at top of tube bundle
• Thin film of liquid runs down inside of heated tubes
- Concentrate separated from vapour
- Hot vapour reused to heat next ‘effect’
• Used for milk, fruit juices

Multiple effect evaporation

• Several evaporators connected together to recover heat from process
• Hot vapour from one evaporator (‘effect’) used to heat the liquid in the next
- 3-6 effects used

Effects of evaporation on foods

• Many aroma compounds more volatile than water lost on evaporation
- Can recover volatiles from evaporated vapour and add back to food
• Darkening of colour
• Evaporated milk has higher vitamin losses than UHT sterilisation
- Low boiling temperatures and short residence times reduce undesirable changes

Freeze concentration
• Fractional crystallisation of water and subsequent removal of ice.
• High refrigeration and capital cost
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• Low production rate

• Only use for highly valuable juices or extracts

Freeze concentration process

A. Direct freezing system – solid carbon dioxide or scraped surface heat exchanger
B. Mixing vessel to grow ice crystals
C. Separator to remove the ice crystals from the concentrated solution- centrifugation,
filtration or wash column
• Multiple stage concentrators reduce the production cost
• Up to 45% concentration

Membrane concentration
• Water and some solutes are selectively removed through a semi permeable
membrane
• Importance – no phase change minimum changes to quality and energy efficient
• Limitations – higher capital cost, fouling of membranes, maximum conc. To 30% solid

Equipment
• Membranes held in cylindrical tubes with associated pipe work and tubes
• Spiral cartridge system
- Used for particle free large-scale systems
- Especially suited for protein purification
• Hollow fibre system
- More suited for particulates
- Bacteria, yeasts, cellular material

Reverse Osmosis
• Separate water from low molecule weight solutes (salts, sugar) which have a high
osmotic pressure.
• Very high pressure (4000-8000 kPa) is used
• Membranes- cellulose acetate (0.05-1µm)
- High water permeability, high solute
• Rejection, durability and mechanical strength to resist high operating pressures

Applications
- Concentrate and purify fruit juices
- Concentrate milk, egg white, coffee, flavour extracts
- Clarify wine and beer
- De-ash cheese whey
- Purify water

Ultrafiltration
• Separate only large molecules (protein or colloids)
• Membranes – polystyrene, glass polymers (0.1-0.5 µm)
• Moderate pressure (50-2000 kPa) is used
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Membranes
• UF
- strong and durable
- cleanable
- e.g. polystyrene or microporous skin supported on a layer of spongy material
Application
• Dairy industry – concentrate whey, removed lactose and salts
• Separation of enzymes
• Pre-treatment for reverse osmosis membrane.

Comparison of membrane concentration with evaporation

• Advantages
- No heating
- No change in phase
- Better product quality
• Limitations
- High capital cost
- Limit to % total solids achievable
- Fouling
Effect on food quality
• Good retention of sensory and nutritional properties
- Functional properties of whey proteins retained
- Concentrated orange juice prepared by reverse osmosis had better sensory
properties than when prepared by evaporation using heat
- UF retains protein, fats and larger CHO but Ultrafiltration may result in loss of
some sugars, vitamins and amino acids in permeate.
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