Month: June 2020

Jun 25

Why minerals are so important?

Mineral is naturally occurring chemical compound which is not produced by life process. Food contains varying amount of minerals. The mineral may be present as organic or inorganic salt or may be present with the combination with organic materials such as phospho-protein, hemoglobin, vitamin B2, chlorophyll etc. Minerals like calcium and phosphorous are required in large amount in our diet as they constitute major part of bone. Other minerals like zinc, Cobalt, copper, iodine etc. are required in very small amount ranging from few mg to microgram. However, these minerals should not be neglected in our diet as even they are required in very small amount, their inadequate intake leads to several deficiency diseases. Read more

Jun 23

Water Balance and its Importance for Good Health

Water and its importance to health:

Water is the most abundant compound present in most food. Cellular material, whether plant or animal contains a significant amount of water. Green leafy vegetables contains ≥ 90% water. Water content in relation to food material is normally termed as “moisture content”. Meat, Milk and cereals contains 50 -60%, 87- 88% and 11-13% moisture respectively.

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Jun 22

How to become food technologist?

Food technology is stream of science which deals with food and nutrients therein. It also takes understanding science of physical, chemical and microbiological aspect of food and application of technologies for processing, preservation and value addition of food considering food safety and food quality.

For those who are looking for advancing their career in field of food technology, this video illustrates the road map to become a food technologist. Hope this video will make you understand what it takes to become a food technologist and know that food technology is neither a culinary art nor a home science.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmhcePkYDB0

Jun 22

Interesterification of Fats and Oil

Interesterification is a chemical reaction that induces the rearrangement of fatty acid within and between triacylglycerols. Interesterification of oil changes its molecular composition to achieve following characteristics.

  1. Modify the melting point
  2. Slow down rancidity
  3. Make an oil more suitable for deep frying
  4. Make margarine with food taste and low saturated fat content.

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Jun 21

Effect of Hydrogenation on oil and Isomerization

Hydrogenation brings changes on physical and functional properties of fats and oil. it  raises the melting point and reduces the iodine value (IV) of triglycerides. Completely hydrogenated fats (IV<1) are solid and brittle at room temperature. An advantage of hydrogenation is that a wide range of physical properties can be achieved. Functional properties of hydrogenated fat can be determined by solid fat index (SFI) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The parameters describe the relative amount of solid fat and liquid oil at fixed temperature. NMR gives value according to atomic structure and molecular weight of the substances. Read more

Jun 20

Material Balance around Operating Line

In any balance in the system, we have

Accumulation = input – output + generation – consumption……… (i)

However, while performing material balance in distillation column, we assume,

  1. Operation is carried out in steady state (i.e. constant volume) ⇒ Accumulation = 0
  2. We assume there is no reaction between components. ⇒ Generation = 0, Consumption = 0

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