foodtechnologycongress 2020

Food processing is a technology which uses a set of techniques and methods to transform raw ingredients (or raw Food) into other forms for consumption by humans or animals by the food processing industry. Food processing typically takes harvested crops or animal products and produces marketable, long-life products which can be consumed directly or stored to cook later.

The main benefits of food processing are preservation, distribution, marketing, protection from environmental substances and the ease of preparation.

There are also a few drawbacks of food processing like the loss of nutritional value and health effects due to added additives.

Some of the Food processing methods are:

Removing the outer layer of vegetables

Chopping or slicing of vegetables.

Mincing

Liquefaction (to produce fruit juice)

Fermentation in beer

Mixing

Addition of air for bread packaging or gasification of soft drinks

Packaging

Food microbiology refers to the study of micro-organisms that contaminate or destroy food.

Food Microbiology mainly focuses on a variety of research on bacteria that have beneficial as well as harmful effects on the quality of food.

Food-borne micro-organisms interact differently with various foods and their response differs with various food products.

So there is a need to study the microbial diversity for improving the quality, safety, and to maintain healthy properties of processed foods.

Packaging plays a major role in the Food industry.

Everything including the convenience, attractiveness, and shelf-life are taken care by proper packaging of Food.

This track of the Food Processing congress includes the advancement in the machinery used to process the food, portion in respected size and pack.

Even the food packaging industry equipment must meet the federal Regulatory standards for safety, electrical code, sanitation, etc. Also the Packaging depends on the demand for capacity, speed, accuracy, waste reduction, durability and ease of use.

The different types of Food processing include:

Thermo-Processing

Frozen Food Processing

Grain processing

Poultry and Meat Processing

Baby Food processing

Some Emerging Technologies

• Extrusion and drying
• Hurdle technology
• Thermal processing technology
• Non-thermal processing

Nutritious food is basic necessity of life for human beings. If we fail to obtain sufficient micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) our health will deteriorate. While we already know that malnutrition and hunger are the main problems in developing world, proper nutritious food can solve the problem of under-nutrition.

Food can also become a source of foodborne illness which can result from eating contaminated food, spoiled food or food with toxic substances.

Climate change also plays a major role in the nutritional quality, security and quality of food.

Main causes include:

• Increase in the usage of agricultural chemicals due to increase in pests
• Maintenance of food supply during extreme weather conditions
• Climate change due to increase in floods and drought

Food fermentation refers to the process which converts carbohydrates to alcohol using microorganisms like yeast.

Food fermentation also refers to the chemical conversion of sugar into ethanol. The similar process takes place in making of bread and preservation of yogurt, storage of olive and cheese.

Food machinery consists of various types of machines used in packaging, heating, cooking, chopping and mixing.

Depending on the type of food, it is packed in numerous ways. Different types of packaging machines are used to pack different food products depending on the storage life of the product. Example: meat and frozen items are kept in vacuum sealed packages to extend their storage life.

• Bundling Food Packaging Equipment
• Food Vacuum Packaging Machine
• Biscuit Packaging Machine
• Bagging, Closing and Capping Machine

During the quality management program, all food products go through investigation process. The food products are tested throughout the development, production and even after launching in the market.

The food analysis is done by taking physical, chemical and biological attributes of food and drinks.

• Nutritional Labelling
• Hazard Analysis
• Food Inspection
• Food manufacturing practices

Packaging plays a major role in the beverage industry. Juice packaging is necessary for increasing

1.    Shelf life

2.     Convenience

3.    Sustainability

In the beverage Packaging industry, the major components include rigid plastics, Flexible plastics, Metal, Glass, Tetra packs and Labels which are packed in various types like a bottle, can, pouch, cartons, and others.

Talking about the beverage packing industry, the size of the market was estimated at USD 117.0 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach a value of USD 142.28 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 4.17%, over the forecast period (2018-2023).

Packaging industry also has to constantly find innovative ways to reduce the weight of the bottle. Many manufacturers are making efforts to reduce the weight of the existing material or switch to lighter pack format.

Seafood processing refers to the process in which fish products are processed form the time they are caught to the time it is delivered to the customer. The term seafood refers to all the aquatic organisms which are harvested for commercial use, whether they are caught in rivers, lakes, or grown during fish farming or harvested from aquaculture.

Seafood processing is divided into raw fish handling, manufacture of fish products, freezing of fish for distribution, producing frozen and canned fish products.

Food flavouring (or food flavoring) refers to the blending of essences, liquid extracts and flavours which are added to the produce to enhance the taste and aroma.

Essential oils from fruits and vegetables, synthetic organic chemicals, food colouring is the basic flavourings which are used.

Although the food flavouring industry mainly used to focus on natural flavouring substances, today we see a lot of organic chemical components such as alcohol, hydrocarbons and phenol ethers used.

Classification of food flavours:

• Natural Flavours like herbs, fruits, spices and aromatic seeds like cumin.
• Processed flavours like fermented, roasted, baked and toasted
• Added flavours like essential oils and extracts
• Synthetic flavours like true fruit flavours.

Food toxicology is a field which studies the impact of chemicals in food, particularly if they have the potential to produce adverse health effects. Nutritional toxicology includes study of human health impacts of additives and flavours.

Food and nutrition toxicology involves investigation of flavours, additives packaging materials and food contaminants.

• Food Contaminants
• Food Intolerance
• Food Safety Assessment
• Food Allergy
• Genetically Modified Food

Recycling your food is an idea that can produce both economic and environmental savings. More alternative ways of recycling the waste from the food are discovered each year which lead to efficient and budget-friendly disposal of waste.

The waste management can benefit the company and also the environment.

Why recycle your food waste?

When recycled, food waste can be turned into something useful like fertilizer and electricity to power industries and homes. Also if the food is not recycled, it may land in a rubbish bin where it rots and releases harmful greenhouse gasses.

Food preservation refers to the techniques used to prevent food from spoiling. It includes different methods like drying, irradiation, pasteurization and adding of additives.

Food preservation is extremely important in the food industry as majority of the food products need to be preserved. Major causes which are responsible for spoilage of food are attack of pathogens and oxidation of food.

Some methods of food preservation are

• drying
• Salting
• Freezing
• Smoking
• Fermenting.
• Drying
• Refrigeration and freezing
• Salting and pickling
• Dehydration

The food and processing industries deal with sensitive products. So the industry needs to maintain a certain quality of food standards so as to meet the requirements of the people.

Most of the customers tend to buy a product of the same brand which we think is of good quality and matches our expectations, but even the slightest mistakes where the quality of a product is damaged or compromised could completely destroy the image of the brand and the company could face a huge loss.

To prevent this from happening, severe quality control measures are taken by the food industries.

One way to reduce these type of incidents is to eliminate the source of a problem with through inspection and quality management to ensure customers requirements are met

Due to adulteration, food and beverages lose the nutrient content and may also lead to diseases when consumed. Adulterated food is dangerous as this food can have a large impact on human growth and mental health as well. Adulterants are the substances which are used in adulteration process of different food and beverage items. Foods which undergo adulteration are both harmful for physical and mental health. Even after taking  multiple steps to stop adulteration, many adulterated products are still sold openly which is a big threat.