Laguiab, Jamil Mansor M.

4BSABE-A

Unit Operation – it is a process where only the physical changes take place, i.e., filtration,
drying, evaporation, and crystallization, which are employed in the preparation of
reactants, the purification and separation of their products, the recycling of unspent
reactants, and the regulation of energy transfer in reactors.

Example of basic unit operations and their importance in food processing

1. Cleaning – it removes foreign matter and contaminants that are lingering on the
surface of the raw food material.
2. Grading – it used to sort raw material by their characteristics such as flavor, size,
color, maturity, etc. to determine their quality
3. Peeling/skinning – it is a process of removing the inedible or undesirable rind or
outer layer from raw produce. Peeled products are prepared to meet high quality
and safety requirements for human eating or other forms of future processing, such
as dicing, chopping, and canning, by the peeling process.
4. Sorting – is it is used to classify and separate foreign material from raw food
material before they enter the processing plants and facilities.
5. Evaporation – it is used to remove or reduce the water content of a raw food
material and increase its solid content to provide microbiological stability and
reduce transportation and storage costs.
6. Crystallization – it plays an important role in the food product quality and shelf life.
To obtain desired functionality and shelf life of a manufactured products,
crystallization must be controlled to get the required crystal concentration, size
distribution, form, and polymorph.
 Potato undergoes a series of unit operation to achieve the very thin slices of potato
that have been fried until they are hard, dry, and crisp. The start of the process is the
same as the process of other raw food materials — sorting/ grading and cleaning. After
that, they are peeled and sliced to a desired thinness. Then they are blanched to reduce
the moisture content and helping them crisp up much more easily when fried. The
blanched thin slices of potato then dewatered to make them ready for frying. After frying,
the excess oil is remove from the fried potato, then they are cooled, seasoned, and
packed.