AE 357

COURSE OBJECTIVE
 Know the importance and need of processing agricultural
produce

 Know various processing operations such as cleaning,

sorting, grading, drying, size reduction and mixing.

 Identify the various types of processing methods for

selected agricultural produce

 Select appropriate processing equipment for an

agricultural produce
 Course outline
 Introductory Concepts

 Processing and preservation technologies

 Processing of crops of major economic

importance

 By-product utilisation and management

 References
 Adeyemi, I. A. Upgrading local technology for cereal processing. Proceedings
11th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and
Technology, Port Harcourt, Oct 25-29, 1987; Aworh, O. C. Ed.; NIFST: Lagos,
Nigeria, 1987, 51-60.

 Akinrele, I. A.; Ero, M. I. O.; Olatunji, F. O. Industrial Specifications for

Mechanised Processing of Cassava into Gari. Federal Ministry of Industry,
Lagos, Nigeria, 1971.

 Banshi D. S. (1992). Oilseeds processing technology ; M/s. Maria Industries,

Bhopal, India
Assessment
 Final Examination – 70%

 Continuous assessment – 30%

 Mid-semester Examination – 20%
 Assignments/Project – 10%
Houserules
 Presentation of previous lecture slides would be sent to students before the
next lecture

 For the above and other purposes, Class Representative to send email
addresses, separated by semi colon and approved by the class to lecturer at
joakowua@gmail.com

 There shall be no late coming or absenteeism

 Lecturer shall inform students in advance if he is going to be away

 Any student coming into class 30 mins after start of lecture shall not be
permitted to sit in lecture

 If for any reason a student is going to be absent, he/she should inform the
lecturer (of course with a good and justifiable excuse)

 Anymore …
 Learning objectives
After this unit the student should be able to:

 Know the definition of processing and preservation

of agricultural produce

 Discuss the types of processing

 Know the importance of processing and

preservation

 List some important agricultural crops

 INTRODUCTION
 Agricultural processing may be defined as an activity:
 performed to maintain or improve the quality or to change
the form or characteristics of an agricultural product to
improve or maintain marketability.
 alters the physical or chemical characteristics of a material

 Processing can be
 simple and quick as washing vegetables or
 long and complicated as making cheese or wine.

 Generally processing refers to

 all activities following harvesting and prior to marketing
 INTRODUCTION
PRESERVATION
 It is process of treating and handling food in a way to stop
or cut down spoilage to prevent foodborne illness without
hampering the texture, nutritional value and flavour.

 It is a method of keeping food to be stored for future use.

 Preservation involves preventing the

 growth of bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms and retarding
the oxidation of fats causing rancidity

 Preservation to a great extent means

 preventing the contamination of food substances
Types of processing
 Primary processing
 removing foreign matter, immature grain from harvested
produce making it eligible for processing or
 conversion of raw material into a form suitable for secondary
processing.

 Examples of primary processing activities include

 cleaning, sorting, grading, washing, shelling etc

 Primary processing may take place with or without

 a great deal of machinery and equipment.
 Types of processing
 Secondary processing
 Processing of primary processed raw material into product
which is suitable for food uses

 Examples of secondary processing activities

include
 milling, ginning, dairy processing, juicing, tanning etc

 All secondary processing activities requires

 machinery and/or equipment specifically suited for the
product
 Types of processing
 Tertiary processing involves
 conversion of secondary processed material into ready to eat
form

 Examples include
 baking, mixing, packaging etc

 Tertiary processing require

 specialized machinery and equipment to manufacture the
desired product.
 Importance of processing
 Processing aims at
 handling and manipulating products so that they will yield
the highest possible net return after being processed
 maintaining initial quality of the raw products

 Main purpose of agricultural processing is to

 minimise the qualitative and quantitative deterioration of the
material after harvest
 Importance of processing
 Many agricultural products are perishable and only
available for a short period of time.
 Example, berries, fruit and vegetables - jam, jelly, and juice -
consumers can enjoy these products year round

 Many farm products must be processed before they can be

used as intended.

 Processing is done to prepare products for sale by making

value-additions to the products to sell

 Valorize production surpluses, increase and secure

producers income, and increase production in general.

 Processing fetch additional income to farmers and help in

stabilising prices of produce with economic returns.
 Importance of processing
 Processing is basically done to:
 reduce post harvest losses
 enhance the shelf life of agricultural produce
 Improve or maintain the quantitative and qualitative
characteristics of the produce
 enhance marketability of the produce
 enhance storability and to preserve
 convert to edible products
 extend availability and provide accessibility
 to provide variety and choice
 add value
 Importance of preservation
 Preservation offers the following advantages:
 Adapt the product to market conditions,
 Fight against the momentary decay of the product due to
climate
 Increase the nutritional and micro biological qualities of the
product
 Protects the product against pests.
 destroys, inhibits or removes micro-organisms
 retards or prevents deterious biochemical, chemical and
physio-chemical changes
 maintains and generates acceptable properties
 preserves or enhances the nutritive value
General procedures that may be used to improve, maintain, or
change the quality of a product are:

 Control of Storage Conditions

 Temperature
 Relative Humidity
 Time

 Kill or Inhibit Destructive Organisms by

 Fumigation
 Refrigeration
 Heating

 Improve the Physical Characteristics by

 Changing or maintaining the moisture content
 Removing foreign or dissimilar materials
 Sorting into various fractions
 Identified crops of importance
 Cereal crops  Nut crops
 Root and tuber crops  Oil crops
 Sugar crops  Beverage and stimulant
 Grain legumes crops
 Vegetables  Fibre crops
 Fruit crops  Rubber crops
 Pesticide, drug, and
essential oil crops
 Assignment
 List three types of crops for the mentioned
categories.
•Methods used for processing and preservation
•Processing operations and equipment
 Learning objectives
 Identify methods used for processing of agricultural
products

 Understand the terms cleaning, grading and sorting and

their importance in relation to processing of agric produce.

 Know the factors required for sorting and grading of agric

produce

 Know the types of sorting, cleaning and grading

equipment
 Processing and preservation technologies
 Processing methods
 Cleaning, Sorting, Grading
 Size Reduction
 Cutting , chopping or shearing, shredding, crushing, grinding, milling
 Mixing
 Pelleting and Cubing
 Drying
 Preservation methods
 Heat Treatments; steaming, pasteurization, frying and baking
 drying
 irradiation
 Chemical Treatments; concentration
 Cold Treatments; freezing
 Biological Treatments; fermentation
 Cleaning, Sorting, Grading
• Very important post harvest operations
• Cleaning
– Removal of foreign or dissimilar or undesirable
materials from a produce.

• Cleaning is accomplished by
– Manual methods by
• Washing, handpicking and winnowing
– Mechanical means by
• Washing, screening, aspiration
• etc
 Cleaning of fruits and vegetables
 Mostly done by washing:
 Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are sometimes washed to
remove:
 dirt, spray residues, and other foreign material

 Modes of washing
 Soaking
 done in still or moving water or other fluids
 effective only for cleaning surface undesirables- present in small
quantities and loosely attached to the product.
 used in combination with other methods as a pre-cleaner.
 Cleaning of fruits and vegetables
• Modes of washing
– Water Sprays
– effective for removing firmly attached pieces of dry dirt
– water jets used from low-pressure wide-angle to very
high-pressure and agitate the mass of product
– Rotary Drum
– most commonly used commercial washing devices
– thorough cleaning and cause minimum damage to the
product
– Brush Washers
– involves the use of rotating brushes
– effective for removing sandy or loamy soil and for
removing spray residues
 Cleaning of fruits and vegetables
• Modes of washing
– Shuffle or Shaker Washers
– employ a vigorous reciprocating motion.
– especially recommended for the more difficult
cleaning jobs.
– unsuitable for products that are easily damaged.

• Best washing procedure usually involves two or more

of the washing modes
 Sorting
• Separation of cleaned products into various
quality fractions

• Dependant on physical characteristics of the

product such as
– Size
– Shape
– Density
– Texture
– Colour
– etc
 Sorting of fruits and Vegetables
 Fruits and vegetables are sorted on the basis of:
 Colour,
 damage,
 size,
 Shape and
 specific gravity

 Most sorting on the basis of colour and damage is done

manually
 Sorting of fruits and Vegetables
 Sorting procedures for fruits and vegetables
 Screens: Sieves for separating materials into two or more
fractions
 Many fruits and vegetables (spherical in shape) are screened into
grades over vibrating screens
 Use of diverging belt
 consists of two belts which diverge as they travel. Fruit is carried on
and between the belts
 distance between the belts increases systematically, the smaller
sizes drop at beginning of travel while larger sizes are carried
farther
Pommelo sizer is composed of a rectangular chute made of plywood, padded with
foam to prevent bruising. The fruit is dumped into the octagonal platform at the top of
the chute, then allowed to roll, one by one, down toward a series of constrictions.
Large fruits are caught in the first constriction, medium in the second, and small in the
last.
 Size Openings
 If a conveyor system for sorting, a wide variety of sizing
chains and belts are available for sorting produce. Sizing
chains can be purchased in many widths and in any size
opening.

 Square openings are usually used for commodities such as

apples, tomatoes and onions.

 Rectangular openings are used for peaches and peppers.

Hexagonal openings are often used for potatoes and
onions.
Hexagonal
Sorting procedures for fruits and vegetables
 Roller Sorters
 They fast, accurate and cause little damage to the fruit
 Each roll rotates in a counter clockwise direction
 Rotation is done continuously for each fruit to have an
opportunity to register its minimum dimension with the
space in the sorter
Sorting procedures for fruits and vegetables
 Weight sorters
 operate on the basis of unit weight
 accurate and moderately fast and damage to
produce is minimised
 used on all large-size products like oranges and
mangoes.
 They are especially useful for sorting materials
that are not adapted to other procedure because
of shape or texture
Grading
 Classifying cleaned products into various quality fractions
depending upon the commercial value or usage
 is dependent on more factors than are recognised when
physical sorting is considered
 Grading of agric produce is base on grade factors
 Physical Characteristics
 Chemical Characteristics
 Biological Characteristics
 Grade Factors
 Physical Characteristics
 Moisture content, unit size, unit weight, texture, colour,
foreign matter and shape

 Chemical Characteristics
 Rancidity, FFA index, odour and flavour

 Biological
 Germination
 Type and amount of insect damage
 Type and amount of mould damage
 Bacteria count
Cleaning and sorting of grains, nuts and seeds
 Grains, nuts and seeds are cleaned and sorted by
 size, shape, specific gravity and surface characteristics using
screens, blowers, specific gravity separators, cyclones etc
 In these products, no distinct division can be made between
cleaning and sorting since these operations are carried out
simultaneously
 Screens/sieve:
 most widely used cleaning, grading and sorting device
 satisfactory for cleaning and sorting most granular products.
 Screening
 It refers to separating of materials into two or more
fractions
 It depends only on the size/shape of the material
 Screening unit consists of two or more screens/sieves
suspended by hangers
 impart a horizontal oscillation and a smaller vertical motion
 Screening involves
 Scalping -removing oversized material
 Sticks, soil particles, animal filth, cobs and stalks
 Fines removal -removing undersized material
 broken kernels, underdeveloped grains, weed seeds, sand or dirt

 Aspiration -removing light material (chaff) using air

velocity
 Screening
 Purposes of screen motion
 To spread the material over the surface of screen.
 To cause the fine particles to settle at the sub-surface.
 To discharge the oversize particles.

 Screen Fractions
 Material retained over a screen is called the oversize or plus
material.
 Material which passes through the screen is the undersize or
minus material.
 Material which passes through a particular screen and
retained over a subsequent screen is the intermediate
material.
 Objectives of grain cleaning
 Eliminate the need for fumigation
 Grain for long term storage must be fumigated or scalped
 Reduce drier energy costs
 Cleaned grain resists mould growth and infestation, so a higher
storage moisture can be used
 Reduce storage loss
 Cleaned grain resists spoilage better than uncleaned grain
 Reduce aeration cost
 Clean grain has less resistance to airflow and a lower aeration rate is
required
 Reduce transport costs
 When FM is removed from the grain, less weight is transported
 Improve grain quality
 Grain quality is important in a competitive market
 Improve grade, which results in higher price
Equipment for cleaning, grading and separation
 Separation of products are performed by exploiting
the difference in engineering properties of the
materials.
 Equipment can be classified based upon the following
characteristics of the material.
 Size
 Shape
 Specific gravity or weight
 Surface roughness
 Aerodynamic properties
 Ferro-magnetic properties
 Colour
 Electrical properties
 Separation based upon size
•Screen cleaners/graders
– It performs the separation according to size alone.
– The mixture of grain and foreign matter is dropped
on a screen which is vibrated either manually or
mechanically.
– The screening unit may be composed of two or
more screens as per the cleaning requirement.
E.g.: groundnut grader
 Air-screen cleaners

• Screens used in combination with air blast performs

satisfactory cleaning and separation operations.
• The air-screen cleaner uses three cleaning systems
– blowing or aspiration, scalping screens and grading lower
screens.

• The air –screen cleaner can be classified in two

distinct types based on the movement of the
screening surface:
– Vibratory screen
– Rotary screen
 Vibratory air-screen cleaner

 The screening unit is composed of double or

multiple screens.

 Screens are tightened together and suspended by

hangers to provide horizontal oscillating motion and
slightly vertical motion.
 These two motions in combination move the grain down
the screen and at the same time toss sufficiently above the
screen so that the bed of grain is properly stirred.

 The slope of the screen is adjustable to control the

rate of downward travel of the grain
 Rotary screen cleaner
• The rotary screen cleaner has normal circular decks.
• Their motion is circular in horizontal plane, and have
either single or double drum.
• The mixture is fed into the hopper. The sound grain
pass through the screen perforation into the centre of
the screen drum, where oversized material is retained
above and pass out through an outlet.
• The sound grains come out at the centre side of the
screen drum rotating at low speed and fall onto the
vibrating screen which remove the dirt particles.
 Rotary screen cleaner
• The light particles like straw and dust are sucked
away by the aspirator and discharges through the
aspirator outlet.

• The cleaned grains are delivered through the

discharge chute.
 Aspirator and Pneumatic Separators
 Uses terminal velocity of grain to effect separation.
 Aspirator
 Fan is at air discharge point
 Vacuum or negative pressure is created
 Rushing air effects the separation

 Pneumatic Separators
 Fan is placed at intake end of machine
 Higher pressure is created than atm. pressure
 Material is separated by high pressure blast
 Particles with LTV lifted and particles with TV > AV drops
A conventional fanning mill shown in cross section. The rough mixture is fed from the
hopper at the top. Large-sized foreign material is taken off at 1. Dust and very light
seeds are aspirated at the hopper, the light seeds accumulating at 2. The desirable seed
accumulates at 3 and discharges at the bottom, the smallest seed accumulating at 4.
Fractions between 3 and the bottom discharge are deposited at 5 and 6
 Specific Gravity Separator
 Separates according to difference in density or
specific gravity of the component mixture.

 Separations is based on two principles

 characteristics of grains to flow down an inclined plane
 floatation of particles (seeds and chaff) due to upward
movement of air through mechanical agitation

 Stoner is a modified gravity separator

 does two part separation
 separates heavy products from lighter products
 Inlet
onto
table

Separated
fractions
Spiral Separator
• Separates grains by their ability to roll (as per
their roundness).
• It is effective in removing rounded-grain
pulses, and soybeans from wheat and paddy.
• Also effective in removing split seeds from
whole round seeds.

•Advantage
-Most simple separating device.
•Has no motor or moving parts.
Spiral Separator
 Spiral Separator
• Mode of separation
• Mixture is fed at the top of the unit.
• Round materials of the mixture pick up
speed as they slide or roll down the inclined
surface until their centrifugal force becomes
sufficient enough to throw them in the outer
helix.
• Non-round materials are caught in the inner
helix and are discharged through a separate
spout.
 Inclined Belt Separator
 It is sometimes called the draper machine.
 Used for separation of flat and round seeds.
 Mode of separation
 Material is fed from above on belt at appropriate angle.
 Round seeds stay on belt, but roll back into a separate
container.
 Flat seeds remaining on belt are carried up the belt and over
the end.
 Speed of belt and angle can be changed to obtain desirable
separation.
 Indented disc & cylinder Separator
 Separates based on lengths since most grains and seeds are
almost same dimension in width and thickness

 Consists of horizontal cylinder with pockets on the inside.

 Velvet Roll Separator
 The velvet roll or roll mill separates grains on the basis of
differences in shape and texture.

 It is a finishing machine and should be used only after

cleaning and separation of grain from the chaff and trash.

 It is effective in separating grain with a rough seed coat or

sharp angles from smooth surface grain.
 Cyclone Separator

 The cyclone separator is a device for collecting the end

product in processing operations.
 Most commonly used for collection of dust and wastes
during processing of grains.
 It may also be used with air screen cleaners to collect
light particles which could be carried by air stream.
 To separate out air borne material from the discharge
of pneumatic conveyor.
 Cyclone Separator
Mode of Operation
• The air and material both enter the cyclone
tangentially at the top of the separator when
pressure drop occurs and air forms a vortex
around the centre of the chamber.
• The whirling air being lighter gets collected at
the centre and is delivered out through the
top opening.
• The heavier materials slide down along the
walls of the cyclone and is discharged at the
bottom.