The whole procedure of converting the raw material into food which can be made consumable by human beings or animals is called food processing. Usually, slaughtered, absolutely clean and harvested or butchered components are procured and used for producing marketable as well as attractive food products. A wide range of machines and equipment, instruments, gages, etc. are used by the industry. The main job of an engineer in food industry has now gained a lot of prominence in the past few decades.
The industry of food processing is quite diverse, evolved as well as complex. There is a constant need to process innovation with consumer market getting more and more sophisticated as well as demanding. The consumers expect return for their money, novelty, excitement and a safe product which is packed properly.
Equipment in the food processing industry refers to the processing components, machines, systems which are used for cooking, handling, packaging, preparing and storing food, etc. Even though this equipment used mainly aims towards consumability, palatability, preservation, some pieces of the equipment even perform the auxiliary and primary functions of preparing, handling and packing.
For executing different unit operations which are important for complete cycle of production, like baking, separation, mixing, washing, freezing, sealing, etc. a number of food processing machines are available in the market. These machines are used for producing food and applications like bakery products, dairy products, beverages, etc.
The optimum design and production of food processing machines depend mainly on the requirements as well as specifications of the specific food processing applications.
Types of Equipment Used for Food Processing
#1 Preparation Equipment
Cleaning
Cleaning, sorting, grading, skinning or peeling are a few unit operations which are used by the manufacturers during the process of preparing the raw material.
The process of cleaning divided into dry and wet is done for removing the contaminants as well as foreign material from the raw material. The food processing machines which are used during the process are:
- Ultrasonic cleaning machines
- Sterilizers or Sterilizing machines
- Soaking or Floatation Tanks for Soaking
- Spray Washers (Spray washing)
- Washing System for washing
Drying Process
- Air Classifiers
- Screening Separator
- Magnetic Separator
#2 Grading
This kind of process is related closely to sorting and precluding. We may determine overall quality by simply checking the characteristics of the food material. The food processing machines used during the process include:
- Tungsten Lights
- Image Processors
- Laboratory Equipment
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