Food production engineering basics

• Estimate the physical properties of a foodstuff according to its composition.
• Identify the basic heat and mass transfer mechanisms occurring during food processing.
• Describe the physical meaning of the variables and parameters involved in a process, and predict their influence on the processing time.
• Predict processing times for heating, cooling, freezing drying, salting and membrane separation under simplified assumptions.
• Assess whether a process has reached the steady state.
• Apply reaction and inactivation kinetics to predict the effect of thermal processes on product quality, safety and shelf life.
• Identify possible problems of product safety and product quality and propose plausible solutions.
• Describe the steady shear and viscoelastic behavior of food materials and the use of rheological parameters in food processing calculations and food product development

– Calculation of composition and physical properties of foods.
– Unsteady-state heat transfer.
– Calculation of microbial inactivation and F-values.
– Rheological measurements and food processing.
– Mechanical properties of solid foods.
– Reaction kinetics during food processing.
– Freezing.
– Salting.
– Membrane separation.
– Drying.

The students are expected to be familiar with basic engineering concepts, both mathematical (e.g. solving algebraic equations, changes of variables) and physical (e.g. density, temperature); as well as the use of spreadsheets.

Lectures and calculation exercises.

The course is strongly recommended for students on the MSc in Food Technology who do not have qualifications equivalent to what is obtained in the course or in course 23711.