SEMINAR: 12

TOPIC: FOOD PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY

SPECIFIC TOPIC: THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE CANNED FOOD PROCESSING

LESSON GOALS: At the end of the lesson Ss will get the knowledge about the technology of the canned
food processing and add their words and expressions related with text
 Read the text and answer the questions
 Enrich the student’s vocabulary related with text
 Do exercises
 Watch video lesson about canned food processing technology
USING MATERIALS:
 World Health Organization “The management of nutrition in major emergencies” Geneva 2000
 Êay Yockey Mehas, Sharon Lesley Rodgers ”Food Science and You”
 Harms H.R “Experience Technology” London 1997
 Morello A.M “Microbiology” London 2006
 www.fao.org
 www.who.org
 Grammar in use

GRAMMAR SECTION: HOMONYMS, HOMOPHONES

Homonyms are words with the same spelling but different meaning.
Example:
I got $50 out of the bank.
We sat on the river bank and had a picnic.
Notice the two ways in which a dictionary gives different meanings of a word.
- There are two or more definitions in the same entry when the difference is small and the
meanings are related
Homophones are words with the same pronunciation, but different spelling and meaning.
Plain and plane are homophones.
Example;
- A yacht is a boat with a big sail.
- I bought this jumper in a sale.
-
EXERCISES:

Using the new knowledge; Homonyms; in the following sentences there is a word with at least two
meanings. You probably know one meaning but not the other. Find the word, look it up in your dictionary
and find the correct entry and definition.
a. My brother’s soldier. He’s on leave at the moment.
b. She gave me some sound advice. I’ll certainly follow it.
c. My uncle let me a thousand pounds in his will.
d. Who won the match? It was a draw.
e. Damn! I’ve got a parking line.
f. I am going away on business to trade fair soon.
g. One swallow doesn’t make a summer.
h. I had to buy a special saw to cut through the pipe.
Look at these words in your dictionary and copy the phonemic script.
Then think of another word with the same pronunciation but a different spelling.
Example:
 Flower flour
Male war hire
Caught piece through
Wear hole way
Stair rain saw
Die bored pair

A lot of jokes are makes with homonyms and homophones because there is a play on words. Can
you understand the following children’s joke?
- Waiter! What sort of soup is this?
- It is bean soup, sir
- I don’t care what it was. I want to know what it is now.
- Waiter! What is wrong with these eggs?
- Don’t ask me, sir. I only laid the table.
- Your battery’s flat.
- Oh, dear. What shape should it be?
- You missed school yesterday, Johnny, didn’t you/
- No, not at all.
- Why is Sunday the strongest day?
- Because all the others are weak days.
- What is difference between a ball and prince?
- One is thrown in the air, and the other is heir to the throne.
- What colour would you paint the sun and the wind?
- The sun rose and the wind is blue.
- Why was the doctor angry?
- Because he had no patients.
- Why did the teachers have to wear sunglasses?
- Because their students were so bright
 NEW WORDS AND VOCABULARY

TRANSPORT- transport refers to any type of vehicles that you can travel in
GRADE-if something is graded, its quality is judged or classified
WASH- if you wash something, or if you give it a wash, you clean it using water
BRING-if you bring something somewhere, you move there
PACK-to pack things, for example in a factory, means to put them into containers or parcels so that they
can be transported and sold
SEAM-a seam is a line of stitches joining two pieces of cloth together

BEFORE READING TEXT, READ THE SOME NEW WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS,
EXPLAINING OF THE THEM, AND FIND OUT AND GUESS WHAT THE MEANINGS
ARE IN MONGOLIAN.

The operations after the thawing of the frozen fish or after transporting the fresh fish from the
chill store are as follows:

Grading:
 The sardines are size-graded by an automatic grading machine which selects sardines to
suit the size of cans used in the plant.
 The number of sardines per can permitted for various can types is comprised between 4
and 14 pieces/can 
 The smallest size of sardines allowed for canning
Nobbing
 After grading, the sardines are discharged onto a conveyor for transportation to the
nobbing machine where the head and guts of the fish are removed. On a typical nobbing
machine, the fish are placed on continuous belts with one fish in each compartment. The
belt feeds the fish to a cutting wheel which cuts the head, and together with the guts,
draws it away from the body with rollers. If necessary the tails are cut in the same
operation.
 The packers examine the fish to ensure complete removal of guts. Loss of weight during
nobbing is approximately 21%.
 Nowadays there are also nobbing machines with greater capacity, served by four or more
operators, which can complete following operations: Removal of the head / Evisceration 
/ Removal of the tail / Washing the fish / Packing the fish into cans

Washing
After nabbing the sardines pass through a washing process to remove blood and surface slime.
Washing machines of many types may be used. Washing should be with potable water or sea
water of similar quality.
Brining
 The sardines are then transported, usually by a conveyor, to a brining machine. The
brining can either be a batch or a continuous operation. The speed of the process and the
concentration of the brine can be controlled. The fish are loaded into the brining unit in
one end where they are immersed in concentrated salt solution, and then screwed through
the unit and simultaneously brined. The fish are then discharged at the opposite end of the
unit.
 Salt is absorbed by the flesh; a salt content of about 1-2% of fish weight, when in boxes
is acceptable. The brining machine is equipped with a filter to screen particles from the
brine.
 In addition to giving the product the desired salt content, brining has other beneficial
effects. The process brightens the appearance of the fish by removing remaining slime
and also toughens the skin; when unbrined fish are canned much of the skin adheres to
the can.
 After brining, the fish are allowed to drain before being transported to the packing table.
 The brine must be prepared from salt which does not contain large quantities of
magnesium chloride, a common contaminant in unrefined salt. The brine should be
replaced regularly as otherwise it becomes a source of contamination.

Packing
 After the brining process the sardines are packed (manually or automatically) into pre-
washed cans.
 A manually operated packing line is equipped with conveyor belts, the speed of which
can be altered in order to ensure a smooth supply of sardines and cans to the packers. The
filled cans and waste are removed by the conveyor after packing.
 In common sardine lines the filled cans pass over a weight control unit to a can aligner
and then to a can pusher, which automatically feeds the conveyor transferring them to the
pre-cooker.
 Change of yield during the packing process depends on the quality of raw material, but
on average 5% loss of weight is expected.
Cooking
 A typical flash cooker for sardines consists of 2 sections, one for cooking (in steam at
about 95 °C) and one for drying (in hot air at about 130 °C). The cans with the open end
upwards are automatically transferred to crates, which are hanging on crossbars mounted
on a continuous chain conveyor running in slings up awards into the cooking section, and
into slings downwards in the drying section.
 Between the two sections water is drained from cans as the crates are turned through 360°
around a tumbler. The heat in the cooking section is obtained from supply of direct steam
while the heat in the drying section is indirectly supplied from a heat exchanger. A fan
located on the top of the section circulates the heated air. Weight loss during this
operation is approximately 25 %.
Seaming
From the cooker the cans are automatically transferred onto a conveyor which takes then to the
oil dispenser and onto the seaming machine where they are sealed.

Can washing
Before the retorting process the cans are washed to remove fish residues and oil from the outside
of the containers.

Sterilisation
 All canned fish products are sterilized at temperatures above 100 ºC. Sterilization takes
place in retorts, with or without water. Overpressure is between 2-3 kg/cm². Processing
conditions shown are suitable for those canneries , operating under conditions of good
manufacturing practice.
 The retorts are horizontal, or vertical, batch retorts.
 Example of retorting temperatures and times for canned tuna, for 225g cans: processing
temperature is 116°C for 75 min. or 121°C for 45 min

Storage
If necessary the cans should be washed before temporary storage, however under no conditions
should the processed cans be manually handled while wet.