Notes

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.

Read more

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

Read more

Jun 18

Modification of Fats and Oil: Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation of vegetable oil refers to conversion of unsaturated liquid oil into saturated or partially saturated plastic fat by catalytic addition of hydrogen. Most widely used catalyst is nickel. The main purpose of hydrogenation of vegetable oil is

  1. To modify oil for application in wide range of food uses such as production of margarine, deep frying oil, shortening in biscuit etc.
  2. To extend shelf life of fat by improving oxidative stability by reducing unsaturation. Unsaturated fats and oils are very susceptible to spoilage called rancidity.

For successful hydrogenation, crude oil impurities like phosphorous and sulfur compounds, free fatty acids, and residual soap need to be removed before proceeding for hydrogenation. These impurities have poisoning effect on catalyst and reduce its activity. Canola and rapeseed oil are particularly notorious for high level of natural sulfur which can cause problem in hydrogenation. Read more

Jun 16

Modification of Fats and oil: Fractionation

Different functionalities (nutritional and physical) require specific compositions that are usually not found in a single natural fat or oil. For this reason, fats and oil are often modified in order to achieve these desired compositions and thus physical and nutritional properties. For example; melting behavior, solid fat content are important factors in formulation of shortening and margarine while decreasing poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS) to increase oxidative stability is important in frying oil. Following are the commonly used methods used to modify fats and oil Read more