Notes

Aug 09

Mixing and Homogenization

Mixing is a unit operation in which uniform mixture is obtained from two or more compounds by dispersing one within another. When two or more materials are mixed, the goal of mixing is to obtain homogeneous final mixture. Homogeneity is the quality of being homogeneous. A perfect homogeneous sample indicates the state of complete mixing. Mixing has no preservative effect on food. It is a processing aid to alter eating quality of food and to achieve different functional and sensory quality of food. In some food adequate mixing is necessary to ensure that the proportion of each component in the sample complies with legislative standards. Read more

Aug 07

SPS and International Standard Setting Bodies

Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement:

SPS agreement regulates the conditions under which national regulatory authorities may set and enforce health and safety standards that directly or indirectly affect international trade. In particular, it applies to any measure applied
1. to protect consumers and animals from food and feed borne risks
2. to protect consumers, animals and plants from pest or disease related risks Read more

Aug 06

Extraction Equipment in Food Industries

Design of extraction equipment may vary depending on nature of raw material used and intended product characteristics. Equipment design and working principle also largely dependent on scale of production or processing (large scale / small scale) and economic feasibility. Some popular extraction equipment used in food industries are described below.

Bollman extractor: Bollman extractor consists of perforated bucket elevator in series into which the fresh solid are fed at one end while fresh solvent is added at another end. Solids are fed into each bucket which will be moving downward until half the way and later on, bucket will be moving upward. Read more

Aug 05

Extraction Techniques

Depending upon need and quantities of material to be handled, different extraction techniques are used in food industries. Some popular extraction techniques are
1. Single stage batch extraction
2. Multi stage cross flow extraction
3. Multi stage counter current extraction

1. Single stage batch extraction:
It is a batch extractor in which the solids are brought in contact with adequate quantity of solvent so as to leach out the solute from solid into the solvent. The process can be accompanied with heating or stirring as the process demands. When the extraction process reaches equilibrium, the solution is decanted and excess solvent from the solution is removed to obtain pure solute. Example; brewing tea or coffee, extraction of oleoresins. Read more

Aug 04

Preservation and Maintenance of Industrially Important Cultures

Microorganism for the production of industrially important products are useful only if they can be maintained indefinitely in healthy, pure and genetically stable form. Industrial culture collection consists of stock culture. Stock culture may be simply defined as a culture which serves as source of inoculum. Stock cultures are of two types.
1. Working stock culture: Working stock culture: This culture is maintained at vigorous and uncontaminated condition. Since this culture is used frequently, it must be routinely checked for characteristic feature and contamination.
2. Primary stock culture: This culture is kept for long term storage and are maintained at low physiological activity condition. The cultures are used to produce new working stock culture as per need. Read more

Jul 31

Working Principle of Infra-Red (IR) Spectroscopy

Infra-Red (IR) radiation does not have enough energy to induce electronic transitions as seen with UV. Absorption of IR is restricted to compounds with small energy differences in the possible vibrational and rotational states. For a molecule to absorb IR, the vibrations or rotations within a molecule must cause a net change in the dipole moment of the molecule. Electromagnetic radiation consists of an oscillating electrical field and an oscillating magnetic field perpendicular to each other. The alternating electrical field of the radiation interacts with fluctuations in the dipole moment of the molecule. If the frequency of IR radiation matches the vibrational frequency of the molecule, then radiation will be absorbed, causing the change in amplitude of molecular vibration. Read more