Types of Operations involved in Food Processing

1. Types of Operations involved in Food Processing Food processing is defined as the methods that are used to transform the raw material into the food. It refers to processing machines, systems, and components used to cook, prepare, package, and store food products. If you are interested in buying the food processing equipment, you can refer to various food processing machinery manufacturers. Below given are the methods used in food processing: 1. Preparation:Operations involved during the preparation of the raw material stage are:  Cleaning: The cleaning process removes foreign contaminants like chemicals, soil, etc. from the surface of the raw material.  Grading: It is used to determine the overall quality of food matter.  Skinning: This process is used to increase the overall appearance of a food product by removing undesirable materials.  Sorting: Sorting is based on measurable physical characteristics such as size, shape, weight, etc.

2. Some of the processing equipment used in this method is magnetic separators, tungsten lights, pressure vessels, disk separators, etc. 2.  Mechanical Processing:Operations involved in mechanical processing are :  Size Reduction: This process reduces the size of solid food matter through various mechanical processes like compression, shear, etc.  Size Enlargement: This process increases the average size of the solid food matter by various mechanical processes like forming, extrusion, etc.  Homogeneity: Also known as emulsification. This process increases the consistency of semi-solid and liquid matter.  Mixing: This process combines two or more components into one uniform mixture.

3. Some of the equipment used in the mechanical processing method is rotating pans, homogenizers, knives, slicing machines, meat grinders, crushers, etc. If you want to buy any of the equipment you can refer to food processing machinery manufacturers that are manufacturing these products. 3. Heat processing:Operations involved in heat processing are :  Baking: This process preserves the food matter by destroying microorganisms and reduces the moisture present at the surface of the food.  Dehydration: Increases the shelf life of the food-product by reducing the water content.  Pasteurization: In this, the food material is processed under medium temperature to inactive the microorganism. Some of the equipment used in heat processing is heat exchangers, evaporators, condensers, vacuum dryers, steam blenchers, etc. 4. Preservation:This stage focus on increasing the shelf –life of the food products. Operations involved in preservation are :  Chemical: This method is used to change the pH of the food products.  Refrigeration: This process maintains the characteristics of the food material as well as reduces the temperature of food material to depress enzymes that cause spoilage. Some of the equipment used in the preservation of food products is smoker, chillers, cryogenic systems, etc. 5.  Packaging:This process complete the food processing cycle by producing a final food product. It identifies the food content and indicates its handling, storage, as well as user instructions.