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Lesson Outcomes

  • Define food processing and its importance for shelf life extension.
  • Discuss historical background and related terms.
  • Distinguish various modes affecting food quality.

Lesson Outline

  1. Food Processing
  2. Aims of Food Processing
  3. Historical Development
  4. Types of Food Processing
  5. Traditional vs Modern Food Processing
  6. Minimally Processed Foods
  7. Benefits of Food Processing
  8. Downsides of Food Processing
  9. Unit Operations for Food Processing

Food Processing

  • Defined as activities applied to food/drink for consumption.
  • IFIC: Any deliberate change to food before consumption.

Aims of Food Processing

  1. Value Addition: Enhance appeal and usability, provide greater safety and nutrition information.
  2. Preservation: Extend storage life, maintain quality, inactivate natural enzymes.
  3. Safety: Methods like pasteurization destroy harmful microorganisms.

Historical Development of Food Processing

  • Low Temperature Preservation: Early methods and refrigeration innovations.
  • High Temperature Preservation: Hermetic sealing, pasteurization, and sterilization advancements.

Types of Food Processing

  1. Primary Processing: Raw food to ingredients.
  2. Secondary Processing: Primary ingredients into ready-to-eat products.

Traditional vs Modern Food Processing

  • Traditional: Small scale, artisanal, preservation-focused.
  • Modern: Large scale, automated, product-driven.

Minimally Processed Foods

  • Basic processing retaining quality, nutrition, and appearance. Examples include fresh-cut or frozen fruits.

Moderately Processed Foods

  • More processing than minimally, retains recognizable characteristics. Examples include canned vegetables, yogurt.

Benefits of Food Processing

  1. Improved Storage Life: Reduces spoilage and inactivates harmful enzymes.
  2. Improved Sensory Quality: Enhances taste and digestibility.
  3. Novelty and Innovation: Adapts to consumer needs.
  4. Convenience: Reduces prep time.
  5. Environmental and Societal Impact: Advances food security and value addition.

Downsides of Food Processing

  1. Nutrient Losses: High heat reduces vitamins and minerals.
  2. Added Sugars, Salt, and Fat: Contributes to health issues.
  3. Dependence on Industrial Methods: Can lower diet diversity.
  4. Environmental Impact: Waste and pollution from processing.

Unit Operations for Food Processing

  1. Material Handling
  2. Cleaning
  3. Separating
  4. Size Reduction
  5. Pumping
  6. Mixing
  7. Heat Exchange
  8. Concentrating
  9. Forming & Shaping
  10. Controlling & Monitoring
  11. Packaging

Methods of Food Preservation

  1. Inhibition Methods: Slow microbial growth.
  2. Inactivation Methods: Use heat or irradiation to kill microorganisms.
  3. Avoid Recontamination & Biotechnology: Hygiene practices and GMOs to improve safety and shelf life.