Food processing and preservation

‘ Food is Life ’

2010 E.C

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 Introduction
Food
 Any substance (plant or animal origin) consumed to provide
nutritional support for the body.
 Or any nourishing substance eaten, drunk or taken into the body to
sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc.

Sources and constituent of food

Sources
Plants and animals
 Carbohydrates
 Proteins
 Lipids constituents
 vitamins
 Minerals
 water 2
 Introduction

Historic aspects of food processing and preservation

 A process is defined as the sequence of events and
equipment required to produce a product.
Or a set of actions in a specific sequence, to a specific end.

 A manufacturing process starts with raw materials and ends

with products and by-products.
 One of the major advances in human history was the ability
to preserve food.

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 Introduction

 The earliest preservation technologies developed were

drying, smoking, chilling and heating.
 Compounds such as salt and spices to preserve foods
was also used in ancient times.

 Later on the art of controlling these technologies was

developed.

 The work of Pasteur in the 19th century then made it possible

to understand the real mode of operation of preservation
techniques such as heating, chilling and freezing, providing
the basis for more systematic monitoring and control.

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Introduction

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 Introduction

Preservation processes
Goal:
 the extension of shelf life of foods to allow storage and
convenient distribution.
 reduced populations of microorganisms

Decrease pattern of vegetative cells:

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Introduction

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 Introduction
Inhibition (growth control):
 Rely on control of the environment e.g. temperature
 The danger zone for microbial growth is considered to be
between 5 and 60 ° C
 Thus foods should be chilled and stored at a temperature below
5 °C
 Depend on the intrinsic properties of particular foods e.g. aw and
PH
Use of Chemicals
 A wide variety of chemicals and additives are used to control PH
e.g. as antimicrobial agents and antioxidants preservative
action
 Some additives are synthetic (e.g. TBHQ) while others are extracted
natural sources (e.g. vit E)

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 Introduction

 Many legally permitted preservatives organic acids and esters:

sulfites sorbic acid ethylparaben
nitrites benzoic acid propylparaben,
acetic acid sodium diacetate sodium propionate
citric acid sodium benzoate
lactic acid methylparaben

Limitation: they are usually infective when initial levels of

microorganisms are high
 Nitrites and nitrates are used in many foods as preservatives and
functional ingredients

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 Introduction
Inactivation
 By using heat: advantages
 safe and chemical - free
 it provides tender cooked flavors and taste
 the majority of spoilage microorganisms are heat labile
 have a very long shelf – life when packed in sterile containers
Disadvantages:
 overcooking may lead to textural disintegration and an
undesirable cooked flavor
 nutritional deterioration
 The main heat treatment processes include pasteurization,
sterilization, cooking, extrusion, and frying.
water activity (aw), which is an expression of the reactivity of water in
a food, and indicates how tightly water is structurally or chemically
bound. 10
Introduction

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Introduction

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Introduction

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 Food processing

A simple definition of food processing is the conversion of raw

materials or ingredients into a consumer food product.

processing

Transforms raw food materials through a variety of unit

operations (cleaning, separation, size reduction, mixing, heating,
cooling and packaging ) into high quality, nutritious products.
Some of the earliest forms of food processing resulted in dry food
products.
 by using sun light

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 Food processing

Without food processing we become reliant on indigenous, in-

season foods.
Purposes
 Preservation
 improvement of palatability
 Improvement of texture and eating properties
 creation of new products
 removal of inedible parts
 elimination of microorganisms and
 destruction of toxins.

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 Processing steps for the manufacture of orange juice
concentrate.

Processing steps for the manufacture of frozen peas.

Processing steps for the manufacture of canned soup.

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Food processing: Examples of processing steps for some foods
 Food processing: Unit operation in food processing

Food processing is essentially a sequence of unit operations

(steps) designed to prepare, package, and process the various
food items.
 Unit operations : depending primarily on the type of commodity
being processed.
 Size reduction
 Washing
 Mixing
 Peeling
Cleaning  Emulsification
 Removal of foreign bodies
 Homogenizing Mechanical
 Cleaning in place (CIP)
 Forming transformation
 Agglomeration
 Filtration  Coating
 Screening
 Sorting Physical separation
 Membrane separation  Cooking
 Centrifugation  Baking Chemical
 Pressing  Frying transformation
 Fermentation 17
 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Important part of food processing operations

Many desirable changes as well as undesirable reactions occur
e.g. starch gelatinization, protein denaturation, browning

 These changes can be controlled by controlling the rate of

heat transfer
Purposes
 To inactivate pathogenic or spoilage microorganisms
 To inactivate enzymes
 To avoid browning
e.g. in fruits polyphenol oxidases

 To minimize flavor changes

e.g. lipase and proteolytic activity
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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Blanching
 A mild heat treatment but is not a method of preservation
(pre-treatment method)
 After preparation of raw material
 Sometimes combined with peeling/cleaning
 Before other operations

Before freezing and dehydration

 Enzymes active during storage
 Micro-organisms grow during thawing or rehydration
Before canning
 Avoid enzyme activity during heating of the can
 Causes the removal of gases from plant tissues

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Equipment  Typically 1-15 min at 70-100°C

 Steam blancher  Applied for solid foods
 Hot-water blancher
 Microwave blanching
Cooling after blanching
 Cold air
 Cold water (sprays)
Factors affecting blanching
Size and shape of the food
Thermal conductivity of the food
Blanching temperature/method
Convective heat-transfer coefficient(water or steam)
Under-blanching→ more damage
Enzymes are not inactivated
tissue damage
→ enzymes come into contact with substrates 23
 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes
Cooling after blanching
Cold air
Evapora on→ weight loss
Cold water
Increased leaching losses
BUT absorbing water increases overall yield
Cold water sprays
Higher nutrient retention
Effect on foods
 Membrane damage→ loss of cell turgor → nutrient/flavor losses
 Disruption of subcellular organelles
 Softening
e.g. Calcium chloride to reduce softening
 Removal of intercellular gases from tissues and surface dust
brightens the color
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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

 Leaching→ loss of water-soluble components

 Ascorbic acid = water soluble, thermally labile and subject to
enzymic breakdown → indicator!
Vitamin loss depends on:
 Variety and maturity of foods
 Food preparation methods
 Surface area-to-volume ratio
 Blanching and cooling method
 Time-temperature combination
 Ratio of water to food
 Reduce surface contamination
 Important for heat sterilization→ less spoiled containers

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Pasteurization
Definition
Any process, treatment, or combination thereof, that is applied to
food to reduce the most resistant microorganism(s) of public health
significance to a level that is not likely to present a public health risk
under normal conditions of distribution and storage.

Definition evolved towards ‘any process’

→ irradia on, high-pressure processing, pulsed electric fields,
Membrane technology

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes
Pasteurization: example
Pasteurization of milk
pH ~ 6.7 → destruc on of pathogens
Some spoilage mos are more resistant
→ refrigera on
alkaline phosphatase
= indicator enzyme
D-value? similar to pathogens
High-temperature-short-time (HTST)
→ be er reten on of nutri onal values and sensory
qualities

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Pasteurization of packaged foods

 Hot-water pasteurization
Similar to blanching
 Pasteurization with water sprays equipment
 Steam pasteurization
Pasteurization of unpackaged foods
 Plate heat exchanger
Singh & Heldman–Introduction
 Tubular heat exchanger to food engineering – Chapter 4
 Scraped surface heat exchanger p. 266-273

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Hot-water pasteurization
 Glass, metal or plastic containers
 Little risk of thermals hock
 Batch or continuous

Source: http://www.zacmi.com/pdf/reserved/Pasteurizer.pdf
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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Tubular heat exchanger

Double-pipe heat exchanger

Counter flow ↔ parallel flow

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Effect on foods

Mild heat treatment

→ minor changes to sensory and nutri onal characteris cs
→ shelf-life extended by few days or weeks
Fruit juice
→ colour deterioration due to polyphenoloxidase
→ deaeration
→ BUT loss of vola le components

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Sterilization
 Destroy vegetative microbial cells, spores and enzymes
→ Shelf-life up to 6 months at room temperature
 In-container sterilization (retorting)
Canned vegetables and meat, baby foods, milk,…
Pre-cooking→ minimum hea ng before consump on
Disadvantage: substantial change in quality
 Ultra-high-temperature(UHT)
Mainly liquid foods
Aseptic packaging after heat treatment
Advantage: increased quality
Typically 130-150°C for a few seconds

Shelf-life: at least six months without refrigeration

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Time for adequate sterilization

Heat resistance of micro-organisms and/or enzymes
pH
Heating conditions
Size and shape of container Heat penetration
Physical state of the food
Processing time = f(heat resistance and heat penetration)

Heat resistance
 Depends on the pH of foods → pH dependent strain/type
 Clostridium botulinum as reference in low-acid foods→ most
pathogenic microorganism
 Enzyme inac va on → acidic food, less severe heat treatment
 Commercial sterility concept (12D process)

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Ultra-high-temperature
Heating foods in thin layers+ aseptic packaging
→ improved product quality
Direct methods
Steam infusion
Steam injection
Indirect methods
Plate heat exchangers
Tubular heat exchangers
Scraped-surface heat exchangers 36
 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

In-container sterilization vs UHT

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Low temperature preservation

 Food preservation at low temperatures has been applied since

ancient times.
 The first refrigeration machine was built in 1834 by Jacob Perkins
 Increase in shelf life by inhibition but no destruction of
microorganisms and enzymes
 T-increase permits growth of pathogens and increases spoilage

 Storage of foods at temperatures above freezing and below

15oC (59oF) is known as refrigerated or chilling storage

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Chilling storage is widely used because it generally results in

effective short-term preservation by retarding the following:

 Growth of microorganisms
 Postharvest metabolic activities of intact plant tissues and
post slaughter metabolic activities of animal tissues
 Deteriorative chemical reactions, including enzyme-catalyzed
oxidative browning or oxidation of lipids and chemical
changes associated with color degradation, autolysis of fish,
and loss of nutritive value of foods in general
 Moisture loss

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes
Causes of Quality Loss
Loss of food quality during chilling storage can occur through several
mechanisms.
Microbiological Activity
 A major cause of spoilage of most natural and manufactured foods
 Slaughtering destroys the muscle’s ability to combat
microorganisms
 Dressing and cutting operations disrupt the protective coating
and contaminate previously sterile or near sterile tissues
 Muscle is an excellent substrate for growth of microorganisms
Physiological and Other Chemical Activities
 Depending on the product, quality loss resulting from physiological
or other chemical activities can be slight, moderate, or severe.
 Chilling storage temperatures can result in physiological disorders
and damage to the quality of some fruits and vegetables (e.g.
chilling injury) 41
Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Chemicals that are added intentionally or unintentionally to the

product or its environment (e.g. ethylene) can result in damage to
some products.
 Ammonia is an unintentional additive (leaks in
refrigeration equipment)
Physical Damage
 Bruising is a major cause of damage to fruits, a loss of product
quality due to injury stress
 Dehydration, if excessive, can cause substantial damage to most
food products (e.g., wilting or shriveling of fruits and vegetables
 Excision of muscle pre-rigor can result in excessive contraction,
toughness, and poor water-holding capacity.

NB: Careful control of handling and storage temperatures is necessary

in order to achieve maximum storage life and minimal loss of
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nutrients.
 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Food freezing
Preservation

low temperature(<0°C)
 Microbial ac vity↓
 Enzyma c ac vity↓
 Oxida ve changes ↓
low water activity due to concentration of solutes water supports
deteriorative reactions

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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Shelf life ~ storage

temperature

Long shelf life (months)

BUT temperature fluctuations are
detrimental!
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Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

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 Food processing: Heating and cooling processes

Effect on foods
Volume changes → volume of ice is 9% greater than pure water
 Cell arrangement (presence of intercellular air spaces)
 Concentration of solutes
 Crystallizing components
 Rapid freezing (crust formation prevents further
expansion
Frozen food storage
 Degradation of pigments
 Loss of vitamins: mainly the water-soluble
 Oxidation of lipids
Freezer burn
 moisture leaves the surface to the storage atmosphere

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