Food Processing Technology
Food processing is the conversion of raw materials or ingredients into a consumer food product.
A more complete definition of "commercial food processing" is defined as that branch of
manufacturing that starts with raw animal, vegetable, or marine materials and transforms them into
intermediate foodstuffs or edible products through the application of labor, machinery, energy, and
scientific knowledge.
Aim of food processing technology
1. To extend the period during which a food remains wholesome (the shelf-life) by
preservation techniques that inhibit microbiological or biochemical changes
2. To increase variety in the diet by providing a range of shapes, tastes, colours, aromas and
textures in foods
3. To provide the nutrients required for health
4. To generate value added products.
Processed foods can be classified on the basis of extent and type of processing as follows:
1. Minimally processed foods - These are processed as little as possible in order to retain the
quality of fresh foods. Generally the processes used are cleaning, trimming, shelling,
cutting, slicing and storage at low i.e., refrigeration temperatures.
2. Preserved foods - The methods of preservation used do not change the character of the
product substantially. Example: frozen vegetables, dehydrated vegetables
3. Manufactured foods - In such products, the original characteristics of the raw products
are lost and some basic methods of preservation are used, often using various ingredients
such as salt, sugar, oil or even chemical preservatives. Examples are pickles, jams,
4. Formulated foods - These are products prepared by mixing and processing of individual
ingredients to result in relatively shelf stable food products such as bread, biscuits
5. Food derivatives - In industry, components of foods may be obtained from the raw
product through purification. Example sugar from sugarcane or oil from oil seeds
6. Functional foods - These are foods that can have a beneficial effect on human health.
Example probiotics
7. Medical foods - These are used in dietary management of diseases, for example, low
sodium salt, lactose–free milk for persons with lactose intolerance.
Steps of Food processing technology
1. Raw Material Handling
At the time of harvest or slaughter, most foods are likely to contain contaminants, to have
components which are inedible. It is therefore necessary to perform one or more of the unit
operations of cleaning, sorting, grading or peeling to ensure that foods with a uniformly high
quality are prepared for subsequent processing. These operations are essential to supply safe raw
materials and to maintain the integrity of the food.
● Cleaning is the unit operation in which contaminating materials are removed from the food
and separated to leave the surface of the food in a suitable condition for further processing
Cleaning should take place at the earliest opportunity in a process to prevent damage to
subsequent processing equipment by, e.g. stones, bone or metal fragments. The early
removal of food pieces that are contaminated by microorganisms also prevents the spread
of infection to uncontaminated pieces.
● Sorting is the separation of foods into categories on the basis of a measurable physical
property. The four main physical properties used to sort foods are size, shape, weight and
colour.
● Grading means ‘the assessment of overall quality of a food using a number of attributes’.
For example, eggs are visually inspected over tungsten lights (termed ‘candling’) to assess
up to twenty factors and remove those that are, for example, fertilized or malformed and
those that contain blood spots or rot.
2. Size reduction
The food is reduced mostly into smaller pieces during processing, as the raw material may not be
at a desired size. This may involve slicing, dicing, cutting, grinding, etc. Size reduction is
performed to increase the surface area-to-volume ratio of the food, which increases the rate of
drying, heating or cooling and improves the efficiency and rate of extraction of liquid components.
3. Mixing
Mixing is a common unit operation used to evenly distribute each ingredient during manufacturing
of a food product. Mixing is generally required to achieve uniformity in the raw material or
intermediate product before it is taken for final production.
4. Common food preservation methods
● Thermal processing
● Processing by Direct and Radiated Energy
● Non Thermal processing
● Refrigeration and freezing
● Removal of water or reduced moisture content
Thermal Processing
Numerous food processing operations use thermal energy to elevate product temperatures and
achieve extended shelf-life. The primary objective is the use of an established elevated temperature
for some predetermined length of time to reduce the microbial population within the product.
● Pasteurization is a relatively mild heat treatment, in which liquids or semi-liquids are
heated at a specific temperature (usually below 100 C) for a stated duration to destroy the
most heat-resistant vegetative pathogenic organisms present in the food. For example, in
milk pasteurization, heating temperatures vary widely, ranging from low-temperature,
long-time heating (LTLT, 63 C for a minimum of 30 min), to high-temperature, short-time
heating (HTST, 72 C for a minimum of 15 sec)
In addition to meeting the minimum requirement for necessary reduction in numbers of
pathogens, pasteurization also reduces the population of spoilage organisms resulting in
extended shelf-life of the product at refrigeration temperatures.
● Blanching is a process similar to pasteurization but with specific application to fruits and
vegetables. Blanching is scalding vegetables in boiling water or steam for a short time.
Again the process involves the use of an established time and temperature relationship as
required to inactivate selected enzymes within the food product. In the final analysis, the
result of the process is product stability and the reduction of product quality deterioration
during storage.
Pasteurization is most often associated with liquid foods, while blanching is most often associated
with solid foods.
Processing by Direct and Radiated Energy
Dielectric (microwave) energy and infrared (or radiant) energy are two forms of electromagnetic
energy. They are both transmitted as waves, which penetrate food and are then absorbed and
converted to heat. Ohmic (or resistance) heating uses the electrical resistance of foods to directly
convert electricity to heat.
● Microwave heating
Refers to the use of Microwaves (electromagnetic wave) of certain frequencies to generate heat in
the material. In this, polar molecules such as water molecules inside the food will rotate according
to the alternating electromagnetic field. The rotation of water molecules would generate heat for
cooking.
A household microwave oven uses the 2450 MHz frequency for microwave. For industrial
application, a lower frequency of 915 MHz is selected for greater penetration depth.
● Ohmic heating
Also termed ‘resistance heating’ or ‘electroheating’, this is a more recent development in which
an alternating electric current is passed through a food, and the electrical resistance of the food
causes the power to be translated directly into heat
Advantage: uniform heating of particulate food with faster heating rates.
● Irradiation
Ionizing radiation uses γ-rays. During irradiation of foods, ionizing radiation penetrates a food and
energy is absorbed. Radiation is quite effective in penetrating through various packaging materials.
However, the radiation dose may cause changes in packaging polymers. Thus, careful choice of
packaging material is critical to avoid any radiolytic products from packaging contaminating the
food products.
Non-thermal processing
● High pressure processing
High-pressure processing, also referred to as “high hydrostatic pressure processing” or “ultra-high
pressure processing,” uses elevated pressures (up to 600 MPa), with or without the addition of
external heat (up to 120 C), to achieve microbial inactivation or to alter food attributes.
Heat, in combination with pressure, is required for PATS spore inactivation. This process is called
pressure-assisted thermal processing (PATP) or pressure-assisted thermal sterilization (PATS).
● Pulsed electric field processing
During pulsed electric field (PEF) processing, a high-voltage electrical field (20–70 kV/cm) is
applied across the food for a few microseconds. Food composition, pH, and electrical conductivity
are parameters of importance to PEF processing. During PEF treatment, the temperature of the
treated foods increases due to an electrical resistance heating effect. This temperature increase can
also contribute to the inactivation of microorganisms and other food quality attributes. The
technology effectively kills a variety of vegetative bacteria, but spores are not inactivated at
ambient temperatures.
● Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a form of energy generated by sound waves of frequencies above 16 kHz; when
these waves propagate through a medium, compressions and depressions of the medium particles
create microbubbles which collapse (cavitation) and result in extreme shear forces that disintegrate
biological materials.
Refrigeration and freezing
These unit operations take away heat energy from food systems and maintain the lower
temperatures throughout the storage period to slow down biochemical reactions that lead to
deterioration.
● Refrigeration - The primary purpose of refrigerating foods is to extend shelf-life by slowing
down degradative reactions and limiting microbial growth. Through reduction in rates of
chemical, biochemical, and microbial kinetics, low-temperature storage can extend the
shelf-life of fresh and processed foods. Typically, refrigerated storage means holding food
in the temperature range of -1 to 8°C.
● Freezing - Food freezing is the preservation process that depends on the reduction of
product temperature to levels well below the temperature at which ice crystals begin to
form within the food. By reducing the temperature of the product to -10 to -20°C, the
normal reactions that cause deterioration of foods are reduced to negligible or minimal
rates. These temperature levels limit the growth of most microbial populations and
eliminate microbial growth as a concern in shelf-life of the food product. As would be
expected, the shelf-life of a frozen food is a function of temperature, with lower
temperatures leading to longer shelf-life.
Freezing is a unit operation that is intended to preserve foods without causing significant
changes to their sensory qualities or nutritional value.
Removal of water or reduced moisture content
These processes are designed to reduce product moisture content and achieve extended shelf-life
by limiting or eliminating the growth of microorganisms.
● Dehydration (or drying) is the application of heat under controlled conditions to remove
the majority of the water normally present in a food. Most often, dehydrated foods have
moisture contents that are well below 10%..
The main purpose of dehydration is to extend the shelf-life of foods by a reduction in water
activity. This inhibits microbial growth and enzyme activity, but the processing
temperature is usually insufficient to cause their inactivation. Therefore any increase in
moisture content during storage can result in rapid spoilage
● Concentration of liquid foods is a vital operation in many food processes. Generally, foods
that are concentrated remain in the liquid state. Foods may be concentrated to provide
increased shelf-life and/or increased value. Many foods are concentrated as part of the
processing technology to produce complex food products. In addition, concentration of
liquid foods results in reduced transportation costs, where the final product is produced by
readdition of water to initial strength.
Concentration can be achieved through evaporation. Evaporation involves removal of
water by boiling, with a concentrate stream remaining after separation of the vapors
generated upon boiling.
5. Other food processing technologies
● Fermentation
Fermentation causes desirable biochemical changes in foods in terms of nutrition or digestion, or
makes them safer or tastier through microbial or enzyme manipulations. Examples of fermented
foods are cheese, yogurt, most alcoholic beverages, salami, beer, and pickles.
Representative vegetative bacteria in the fermentations are Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Bacillus,
Streptococcus, and Pseudomonas spp. Yeast and fungi (e.g. Saccharomyces, Endomycopsis, and
Monascus) are also used for fermentation.
● Extrusion
Extrusion is a process that converts raw material into a product with a desired shape and form,
such as pasta, snacks, textured vegetable protein, and ready-to-eat cereals, by forcing the material
through a small opening using pressure.
Some of the unique advantages of extrusion include high productivity, adaptability, process scale-
up, energy efficiency, low cost. An extruder consists of a tightly fitting screw rotating within a
stationary barrel. Within the extruder, thermal and shear energies are applied to a raw food material
to transform it to the final extruded product.
6. Packaging
The purpose of packaging is to contain foods and to protect them against a range of hazards during
distribution and storage.
Materials used for packaging are particularly important where direct contact with the food is
involved. Certain chemicals or foreign materials from packaging materials can contaminate the
food product. The packaging material must meet FDA requirements.
Quality control
A group of activities designed to assure a standard of excellence is called Quality Control. Quality
or excellence in our food supply should be an important concern to all food processors. Safety and
wholesomeness are the most important attributes of food quality. The lack of quality can result in
personal injury, sickness or death. Foodborne illness is an example of sickness or even death when
unsafe foods are produced and eaten.
Potential hazards in foods are those that have an identifiable and significant safety risk that could
cause harm to consumers. Hazard analysis is a systematic assessment that involves identifying the
sources and routes by which contaminants could enter a food at each processing stage; the effect
of the process on levels of contaminants in raw materials, and in particular the probability of
microorganisms surviving the process and growing in the product
● Packaging
● Labelling - Food labels can provide a wide range of information to help consumers make
food choices. Food labels also help to protect public health and safety by displaying
information such as use by dates, ingredients, certain allergens, instructions for storage and
preparation, and advisory and warning statements.
● GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices)
GMPs are an integral part of quality control. It is the responsibility of food business management
and ownership to know, practice, communicate and ensure that GMPs are carried out by
employees. An overview of GMPs is as follows: 1. Individuals with communicable diseases cannot
work in areas where food contamination is possible. This includes individuals with boils, sores or
infected wounds. 2. Food handlers must follow good personal hygiene practices. a. Wear protective
clothing. b. Clean and sanitize hands and gloves. c. No jewelry. d. Use gloves (non-absorbent)
when the job requires hand covering. e. Use effective hair restraints and covering. f. Eat, drink or
smoke only in designated areas. 3. Train employees effectively in hygiene, sanitation and pest
control
● Storage
Storage of raw materials, ingredients and products can take place under ambient conditions or
under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity or atmospheric composition.
References
● P.J. Fellows (2017) “Food Processing Technology - Principles and Practice”, Fourth
Edition, Woodhead Publishing
● Park S.H., Lamsal B.P., Balasubramaniam V.M., Principles of Food Processing
● Pouliot Y., Conway V., Leclerc P.L., Separation and Concentration Technologies in Food
Processing
