CHE 424

Food Process Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering
Ryerson University

Instructor: Dr. Mehrab Mehrvar, P.Eng.,

Professor
Email: mmehrvar@ryerson.ca
Office: KHE224
Tel: (416)979-5000 Ext. 6555
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PART 1

Introduction to Food Process Engineering

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 Introduction to Food Process Engineering
Food is life.

Food processing/treatment before consumption had been used by

prehistoric human: removal of inedible parts, cutting, drying, grinding,
cooking

To this day, transformation and preservation are still two basic objectives
of food processing.

While transformation is the purpose of the manufacturing industry in general,

the objective of the preservation is specific to the processing of foods.

Literally, a process is defined as a set of actions in a specific sequence, to

a specific end. Any manufacturing process starts with raw material and
ends with products and by-products. Processes can be grouped in a
number of operations by the same basic operations, called unit operation.

Some of the unit operations of the food processing industry are listed in the
next table. 3

Unit operation of the food processing industry by principal groups

Group Unit operation (example)
Cleaning Washing (vegetables), peeling (fruits), removal of foreign bodies
(grains), cleaning in place (all food plants)
Physical separation Filtration (sugar refining), screening (grains), sorting (coffee
beans), membrane separation (ultra filtration of whey),
centrifugation (separation of milk), pressing (oilseeds)
Molecular (diffusion based) Adsorption (bleaching of edible oils), distillation (alcohol
separation production), extraction (vegetal oils)
Size reduction (chocolate refining), mixing (beverages),
Mechanical transformation emulsification (mayonnaise), homogenizing (milk, cream),
forming (cookies, pasta), agglomeration (milk powder), coating
and encapsulation (confectionary)

Chemical transformation Cooking (meat), baking (biscuits), frying (potato fries),

Preservation (many of this
group serve additional
purposes as well: cooking,
volume and mass
reduction, ) salted fish), dehydration (dried fruit, milk powder), freeze drying
Packaging
fermentation (wine, yogurt), aging and curing (cheese, wine),
extrusion cooking (cereals)
Thermal processing: blanching-pasteurization-sterilization
(pasteurized milk, canned vegetables), chilling (fresh meat),
freezing (frozen dinner), concentration (tomato paste), addition of
solutes (salting of fish jams), chemical preservation (pickles,
(instant coffee)
Filling (bottled beverages), sealing (canned foods), wrapping
(fresh salads) 4

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 Food Nutrition:
Why Are Foods Important to Us?!

Before starting the engineering aspects of the

food processes, lets take a look at the food
ingredients necessary for body to grow and/or
maintain health and energy.

Essential Food Constituents for Human Health

Food can provide all the nutrients (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins,
vitamins, and minerals) needed for good health.

Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are the nutrients that provide

energy and building material, while vitamins and minerals perform
many unique functions (e.g., calcium and vitamin D for bone
growth and maintenance).

Recommendations for eating for good health include the daily

recommended intake values (DRIs), designed for professionals to
use in assessing dietary adequacy: Dietary Guidelines for
Americans, 2005; and My Pyramid, a nutrition education tool
designed to help the public know what to eat for good health.

Good nutrition can be promoted by buying a variety and an

appropriate quantity of food and preparing it to be appetizing and
nutritious. 6

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 Nutrition, The Ultimate Application of Food
When you know the important roles of nutrients in the foods you are
preparing, you will find even more motivation to prepare healthy and pleasing
food for yourself and others.

Everyone needs energy to do work, even simply to maintain life itself. This
energy is provided by the macronutrients: carbohydrates, lipids (fats),
and proteins. Carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories per gram, less
than half as much energy as the 9 calories per gram available from lipids.

Too many calories provide more energy than the body uses, and the surplus
is converted into fat and stored.

The preoccupation of the public with dieting and weight control overshadows
the fact that other nutrients are essential for a wide range of specific chemical
reactions and key functions.
For example, some minerals are necessary to form the structure of the
body, while certain minerals and vitamins are essential to catabolize
(break down of) innumerable chemical reactions and to synthesize vital
compounds.
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So, lets review important building blocks of our body.

Carbohydrate Biochemistry

Organic compounds with general formula: (CH2O)n n3

OR: Carbohydrate = carbon + water Cx(H2O)y

Generally polymers or repeating subunits

Polysaccharides = polymers of monosaccharides

Carbohydrates are synthesized through photosynthesis:

Light

photosynthesis

CO2 H2O CH2O O2

respiration
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Energy

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 Monosaccharides
Smallest carbohydrates and contain 3 to 9 carbon atoms

Common monosaccharides are:

O OH OH
| | | |
C C C H n 1- 7
Aldehydes = Aldoses | | |
H H n H

OH O OH OH
| ||
|
|
Ketones = Ketoses H C C C C H n 0-6
| |

|
H
H n H

The most common monosaccharide is D-Glucose (next slide).

May be in the form of linear or ring structure (linear form is not
important in biological systems.) 9

Monosaccharides

Glucose is in
linear and ring
forms

Some common monosccharides:

Aldoses:
a. D-Hexoses
(D-Glucose) (D-Galactose)

b. D-Pentoses

(D-Ribose)

Ketoses

a. Ketohexoses: (D-Fructose) 10

5
 Monosaccharides

Also important monosaccharides are: 5 carbon ring-structured sugar

molecules and are essential components of DNA and RNA.

5
CH2OH
O
D-Ribose 4 1
OH
3 2
OH OH

5
CH2OH
O
Deoxyribose 4 1
OH
3 2
OH

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Disaccharides

In ring form the OH on carbon 1 is very reactive. Therefore,

react with each other.

Disaccharides are formed by the condensation of two

monosaccharides.

For example: Maltose is formed by the condensation of

two glucose molecules via -1,4 glycosidic linkage as follows:
CH2OH CH2OH CH2OH CH2OH
O O O O
OH 1 + 4 OH OH OH + H2O
OH O
OH OH OH OH
OH
OH OH OH OH
-D-Glucose -D-Glucose 12
-Maltose

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 Common Disaccharides
Maltose (a sugar produced by the hydrolysis of starch under the
action of the enzymes in malt, etc.)
CH2OH
O CH2OH
O
Sucrose (Major sugar found in OH OH
O
photosynthetic plants) OH
CH2OH
OH OH
-D-Glucose -D-Fructose

CH2OH
OH OH
O
O OH
Lactose (in milk and whey) OH
OH
O
OH CH2OH 13
-D-Glucose -D-Galactose

Polysaccharides

All formed by condensation of more than two

monosaccharides such as amylose (a type of
starch):

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 Carbohydrates
Among the sugars, sucrose is the carbohydrate constituting granulated,
powdered, and brown sugar.

Fructose, glucose, galactose, maltose, and lactose are other sugars

occurring in foods (e.g. in fruits and honey).

Monosaccharides including glucose, galactose, and fructose,do not

require digestion because they are able to pass directly through the wall
of the small intestine and into the blood.

Disaccharides (sucrose, maltose, and lactose) must be digested to

monosaccharides before being absorbed into the body.

The absorbed monosaccharides then go through a series of chemical

changes (metabolism) to provide energy to the body.

Polysaccharides such as starch and dextrins are common in some foods

and are also good sources of energy,
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Carbohydrates
Starch is actually the substance in which plants store energy. The human
body can digest the starch in potatoes and other foods, breaking it down
into smaller and smaller components until the monosaccharide glucose is
produced and absorbed for use in the body.

Dextrins are quite similar to starch, but they are somewhat smaller
molecules.

Not only are carbohydrates valued for their energy value, but certain
polysaccharides are important as fiber, in the diet.

Cellulose, pectic substances, and several gums from plants are

polysaccharides. However, these carbohydrates are not digested and
absorbed in the small intestine, as is the case with the disaccharides and
polysaccharides mentioned previously.

Instead, these particular carbohydrates serve as irritants to the

gastrointestinal tract and help to keep the food mass moving through the
intestines, thus providing useful momentum for the elimination of waste16
materials from the body.

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 Lipids
Compounds having low to very low water solubility (hydrophobic) and high
solubility in organic solvents such as benzene and ether.

Lipids are fatty substances serving as carriers of the fat-soluble

vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K) as well as providing the essential fatty
acid, linoleic acid, and energy.

Not only do fats make foods taste good, but they also add to the feeling of
satisfaction after a meal!

Their structures are largely carbon and hydrogen, with only a small amount
of oxygen. It is this combination that causes fats to be more concentrated
sources of energy than are carbohydrates.

When fats are eaten, they are digested into their two component parts: fatty
acids and glycerol, as below:

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Lipids
Most fats contain three fatty acids and one glycerol unit.
These fats, called triglycerides, are found in foods from
animals and in oils from plants, such as corn oil and
sunflower oil.

The fatty acids and glycerol are absorbed through the

intestinal wall and are recombined into fats in the body.

Eventually, the lipids in the body are broken down, freeing

the fatty acids. Then, they are metabolized into short
fragments capable of joining with a compound formed
during carbohydrate metabolism. After additional reactions,
energy will be released.

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9
 Proteins
Proteins are extremely important components of the body
Enzymes, muscle tissue, blood, antibodies, and many other substances in
the body contain proteins, each of which is made to meet specific physical
requirements.

Proteins are built from amino acid monomers

Amino acids are the building blocks:
Contain at least one carboxyl (-COOH) group and one
amino group (H2N) different in structure of their R groups

It is not possible to eat the specific proteins needed for a particular

function. Instead, protein molecules in meats and other protein-containing
foods are digested in the gastrointestinal tract until the individual amino
acids are released in the small intestine and absorbed.

Example: Broiled salmon is a good

source of protein and other important
nutrients.
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Chemical Structure of Twenty-one Amino Acids

COOH

NH2 C H

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10
 Proteins

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Proteins
21 amino acids are required to make the various proteins the body needs.
The body can use these individual amino acids to synthesize the needed
proteins.

To make proteins in the body, many individual amino acids must be

combined in the appropriate sequence for a specific product.

Hemoglobin
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Proteins:
Some of the necessary amino acids can be produced in the body, which is why they
are termed non-essential amino acids.

Others must be available from food that is eaten because the body needs them but
cannot make them. These are essential amino acids.
There are nine essential amino acids, and these must be eaten in adequate
amounts if a person is to be nourished adequately and maintain good health,
including:
histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine,
tryptophan and valine.
Minerals:
Food contains many other components besides the nutrients that yield energy.

Although they are present in much smaller quantities than the energy-yielding
nutrients, minerals are widespread throughout the food supply in sufficient quantities
to meet physical needs if a wide variety of foods is eaten.

Actually, there are many different minerals. Those found in the largest amounts
calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium are
termed macrominerals. The micronutrient minerals include iron, zinc, manganese,
selenium, copper, and iodine, as well as some other minerals in minute quantities.
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Minerals:
The various minerals play different roles in the body, but they do not yield energy.

Some are essential to the structure of the bones and teeth, and others are
components of numerous compounds, such as hemoglobin in the blood and
thyroxin, an important hormone.

The balance between acids and bases in the body is regulated by some of the
minerals acting as buffers to prevent shifts that would create too acidic or too basic
a medium.

In conjunction with protein, minerals help to maintain the appropriate balance of

water in the various parts of the body.

The ability of some minerals to ionize enables them to help in transmitting nerve
impulses and contracting and relaxing muscles.

Certain chemical reactions are able to occur in the body because specific minerals
act as catalysts. Each mineral has some unique functions in human nutrition.

Because of the diverse functions and the wide range of foods providing significant
sources of these minerals, everyone needs to eat a diet that includes animal and
plant foods to be certain that the diet is adequate. 24

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 Overview of Functions and Sources of Minerals Needed by Humans

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Vitamins
Vitamins: organic compounds needed in very small amounts by the body and that
must be included in the diet to maintain life and promote growth.

On the basis of their solubility, vitamins are classified as fat soluble and water
soluble.

There are only four fat-soluble vitamins: vitamins A, D, E, and K.

The water-soluble vitamins include the B vitamins and vitamin C, also called
ascorbic acid.

This simple listing of the water-soluble vitamins becomes more complicated as the B
vitamins are enumerated: vitamin B1 (commonly called thiamin), vitamin B2 (usually
called riboflavin), vitamin B3 (almost always referred to as niacin), pantothenic acid
(B5), folacin (folic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B12 (cobalamin), and biotin
(B7).

Although vitamins are needed in only milligram or even microgram quantities daily,
attention must be given to selecting foods containing these important substances
and to preparing these foods carefully to retain the vitamin content. 26

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Apples, pears, grapes, and many other fruits and vegetables contribute several
vitamins and minerals to help meet nutritional needs.
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Vitamins

Unlike minerals, which tend to be held tightly within foods,

vitamins may be leached out into the cooking medium or may
undergo chemical changes during preparation, resulting in
reduced nutritive value of the food as actually consumed.

Various vitamins perform a wide range of functions within the

human body. Unless adequate amounts of the individual
vitamins are provided in the diet, deficiency conditions will
develop.

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 Vitamins, Their Functions, Sources, and Deficiency Conditions

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Nucleic Acids

Play the central role in the reproduction of living cells.

Nucleic acids act:

Information storage (DNA)
Information transfer (RNA)
Energy storage and transfer (ATP, GTP, NAD+, )

DNA: Stores and preserves genetic information.

RNA: plays a central role in protein synthesis.

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DNA = Deoxyribonucleic Acid

RNA = Ribonucleic Acid

ATP = Adenosine Triphosphate

GTP = Guanosine Triphosphate

NAD = Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide

NADP = Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate

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All nucleic acids contain three major components:

Phosphate Base
The bonding of
a BASE to a
The NUCLEOTIDE SUGAR give
arise from rise to
phosphorylation
Sugar NUCLEOSIDE
of the nucleosides.

Nucleoside

Nucleotide
Base: Nitrogenous base (5 common ones, 2 purines and
3 pyrimidines)

Sugar: 5-Carbon (Pentose): Ribose or Deoxyribose

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Phosphate: Phosphoric Acid Ester

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 5 Common Nitrogenous Bases
2 Purines:
Adenine (A)
Guanine (G)

3 Pyrimidines:
Thymine (T)
Cytosine (C)
Uracil (U)

DNA consists of A, T, G, and C

RNA consists of A, U, G, and C
(It is the base sequence in DNA that carries
genetic information for protein synthesis.)
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General Structures of
ribonucleotides and
deoxyribonucleotides.

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 Five Nitrogenous Bases Found in DNA and RNA

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Nomenclature of Nucleoside & Nucleotide

BASE NUCLEOSIDE NUCLEOTIDE PRIMARY

FUNCTION
Adenine (deoxy)Adenosie AMP, RNA,
(A) dAMP DNA,
Energy,
Co-E
Guanine (deoxy)Guanosine GMP, RNA,
(G) dGMP DNA,
(Energy)
Cytosine (deoxy)Cytidine CMP, RNA,
(C) dCMP DNA
Thymine Deoxythymidine dTMP DNA
(T)
Uracil Uridine UMP RNA
(U) 36

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 The adenine containing ribonucleotides are particularly
interesting, since they are major players in energy
transfer, cell regulation, and enzyme action.

The reaction to generate energy is:

ATP + H2O ADP + P G = -7.3 kcal/mol

AMP (Adenosine monophosphate) is used to regulate

the expression of some genes. It is also a co-enzyme.

DNA and RNA are very important information storage

and transfer molecules.

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DNA

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Structures of DNA DNA RNA
and RNA chains

Phosphodiester bonds
are formed between 3
and 5 carbon atmos.

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Food Processing Analysis

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 Food Processing Analysis
Each food process should be analyzed for the following aspects:
Material and energy balances
Transport phenomena
Physical properties
Kinetics of chemical reactions
Food safety
Packaging
Control

Therefore in the following lectures, first basic principles, common

to all food processes, are discussed which include nutritional,
chemical and physical properties of foods, momentum transfer
(flow), heat and mass transfer, reaction kinetics and process
control.

Subsequently, the concepts specific to each unit operation of food

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processing are presented.

Review of Definitions

Batch process: material are added to the process, reacted, and discharged.

- conditions such as T, P, C etc. vary during process.

- has a definite duration and after completion, a new cycle starts.

- usually less capital intensive but more costly to operate and

involves costly equipment dead-time for loading and unloading
between batches.

- easier to control.

- suitable for small-scale production and to frequent changes in

product composition and process control.

- example: mixing of flour, water, yeast in a bowl mixer to make

bread white dough for making white bread in one cycle and dark
dough in another.
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 Review of Definitions
Continuous process: material pass through the system
continuously.

- conditions, at a given point of process, ideally remain

constant during the best part of the process.

- more difficult to control.

- require higher capital investment, but lower operational

cost.

- suitable for producing large quantities of one product

for long time.

- an example is pasteurization of milk.

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Review of Definitions
Mixed process: are composed of sequence of continuous and batch processes.
- an example is the production of infant food:
raw materials are continuously subjected to washing, sorting, blanching or cooking, mashing and
finishing (screening).
batches of the mashed ingredients are then collected in formulation tanks where they are mixed
(according to formulation).
after approval by the lab, the batches are pumped one after the other, to the continuous homogenization,
heat treatment and packaging line.
- to run smoothly, mixed processes require that buffer storage capacity be provided between the batch and
continuous phases

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 Review of Definitions
Block diagram: shows the major operations of a process in their sequence,
the raw materials, and the products.
Cocoa

Cleaning
Block diagram of chocolate
manufacturing process. Dehulling

Milling Sugar

Cocoa mass
Cocoa butter Milling
Mixing
Other ingredients
Refining

Conching

Tempering

Molding
Chocolate 45

Standard symbols are used for frequently utilized equipment

items such as pumps, vessels, conveyors, centrifuges, filters, etc.

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 A flow diagram of chocolate manufacturing processes

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A pictorial flow diagram of chocolate manufacturing processes

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