What are the main objectives of food processing?

The composition and moisture content of food creates an ideal environment for the growth and proliferation of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms.

Processing operations involves not just involves just a minor change of form, from dirty to clean but it also involves processing to assure safety, to drastically alter the form of the raw materials, and to provide a product that will remain stable for many months on the shelf.

It must be acknowledge that most if not all food processing operations will influence the physical and sensory characteristics of the product.

Modern food processing preserves food quality, controls food spoilage and disease causing microorganisms, preserves desirable sensory qualities such as flavor, odor, texture, and appearance, preserves nutrients content and in many cases enhances the nutrient value as well.

Processing to retard spoilage permits foods to be consumed at a later date and frequently at a distance from the point of production.
What are the main objectives of food processing?

Infrared heating in food processing

Thermal processing of foods is very important in extending the shelf life of various food products. Infrared heating was first used in the 1930s for automotive curing applications and rapidly became a widely applied technology in various industrial fields such as sensing, measuring, analysis, communication and heat treatment.

Infrared radiation is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is predominantly responsible for the heating effect of sunlight.

The infrared spectrum of radiation can be divided into three different categories:
Near-infrared radiation (wavelength: 0.75-3 μm)
Mid-infrared radiation (wavelength: 3-25 μm)
Far-infrared radiation (wavelength: 25 - 1000 μm)

Infrared heating in food processing had been applied in such as drying, dehydration, blanching, thawing, pasteurization, sterilization, and other miscellaneous food appliances such as roasting, frying, broiling, and cooking as well as in-depth assessment of pathogen inactivation.

Infrared technologies in the food processing sector have an attractive merit such as uniform heating, high heat transfer rate, reduced processing time, and energy consumption and improved product quality and safety.
Infrared heating in food processing

What are the changes during food processing?

Chemical changes that occur during food processing are numerous, and they can be desirable, undesirable of questionable consequence or a combination thereof.

Chemical changes that occur affect its overall quality and may influence both its major and minor components and sensory attributes.

Browning reactions may be caused by enzymatic oxidation of polyphenols and other susceptible compounds if the oxidizing enzymes are not activated.

Advantages that might be attained due to processing of food might relate to reduction in its content of hazardous anti-nutrients such as enzyme inhibitors, cyanogens, glucosinolates, among others as well as control of microbial and enzymatic spoilage.

The major disadvantages of food processing are:
*harm to the sensory properties and nutritive value of some foods, particularly when severe methods of processing are applied to tissues of foods.
*development during some kinds of processing and handling of new chemicals that must be classed as toxicologically undesirable.

The two major chemical changes that occur during the processing and storage of foods, leading to deterioration in sensory quality are lipid oxidation and non-enzymatic browning.

Chemical reactions are also responsible of changes in the color and flavor of foods during processing and storage.

All the changes including chemical, physical, biological, nutritional and sensory, can be measured, so their progress during processing can be followed.

The progress of processing can be measured un many ways, such as chemical analysis, physical measurements, counts of microorganism and color, texture and flavor assessments by sensory panels.
What are the changes during food processing?

Modern Food Processing

The rapid development of commercial food processing in the twentieth century has continued and now dominated food processing.

The focus of modern food processing has been on producing more food in order to feed masses of people and a greater variety of foods to provide options to this mass consumer base.

New food processing and manufacturing concepts, food structure engineering, process design and control, and hygienic aspects are the elements of advanced modern food plants.

It can provides new opportunities for the development of new foods and for the improvement of safety and quality do more conventionally manufactured foods through milder processing.

Progress in food processing can be accelerated by adopting new technologies from other manufacturing industries.

Modern food technology provides a handful of novel processing options to explore, which could provide more diverse food industry products and more competitive and efficient processes.

However, modern processing must reduce raw materials costs, capital investment, plant energy consumption, inventory in the plant, and the amount of pollutant generated.

The modern processing should improved process flexibility, safety and control technology.

Modern Food Processing

Effect of processing on minerals

Effect of processing on minerals
When food is cooked, processed, or stored, minerals may combine with other food components and may become unavailable for digestion. Also, as with vitamins, natural variations in the raw food products and cooking methods result in variations in the final mineral contents of foods.

Minerals are generally not sensitive to heat during processing, but are susceptible to leaching into the processing or cooking water. More than 50% if the manganese, cobalt, and zinc may be lost during canning of spinach, beans, and tomatoes, if the liquid is not consumed.

Mineral losses during leaching can be minimized by use of a minimum amount of water and use if the cooking water in preparation of the food for consumption, such as in gravies, soups, and sauces. Losses in manganese, iron, copper, phosphorus, zinc, calcium, and manganese during the cooking of pasta may be as great as 86.5 – 100 %. Use of hard water for processing and cooking can result in an increase in the calcium or magnesium content of foods, while use of softened water can result in an increase in the sodium content. Mineral losses may also occur as a result of physical separation from the product during milling of grains, refining of sugar, and processing of legumes or seeds into oils. For example, significant losses of magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, and cobalt have been reported during milling of wheat to flour. However, nutrients can be added back to foods by restoration or fortification. Grain milling has positive nutritive benefits, as well. Phytate and fiber, which are present in the bran portion of the grain, are removed during this process, and they are no longer able to bind to minerals and render them unavailable. Therefore, iron and zinc deficiencies are not common in the U.S, whereas they may occur in populations which subsist on unmilled grains. Minerals are also susceptible to changes in bioavailability due to interactions with other food components. For, examples, oxalates may inhibit calcium bioavailability; while vitamin C enhances iron bioavailability.
Effect of processing on minerals

Food Processing

Food Processing
Food processing began thousands of years ago when early man preserved his harvest, fresh meats and fish for winter reserves by drying in the sun, later expanding this to smoking and salting these foods.

Our forefathers labored continually, because seasonal availability and climate necessitated strict attention to schedules. Fruit need to be picked at the right time, animals had to be slaughtered when and where they could be found processed quickly. Inefficient preservation techniques, poor harvest yields, and danger of contamination were common factors limiting the nutritive value of their diets.

While some progress had been made, the diets of man at the time America was settle were still inadequate. Vitamin C, for example, was often in short supply during winter and spring. Primitive techniques utilized in processing, such as drying and pickling, were quite destructive with the skill of the processor, then quality of the ingredients, the technique, and the weather.

Today however, in addition to providing a plentiful supply and large variety of foods throughout the entire year, our modern sophisticated commercial food processing techniques assure a safe, wholesome, and nutritious food supply. Commercial processing preserves food quality and extends shelf life by destruction of food spoilage and disease causing microorganisms. Furthermore processing destroys certain enzymes, occurring naturally in foods, which could otherwise promote spoilage or reduce nutritive value.

It also preserves the desirable sensory qualities of foods, i.e., flavor, odor, texture and appearance. Home processing results in a more variable product than commercial processing and nutrient losses are frequently higher. However processing is essential, since the concentrations of various nutrients decrease in unprocessed foods and eventually wholesomeness is lost.
Food Processing