Why Food Production Industry Is Important?

The food processing industry is of extreme importance as it offers necessary synergies and
linkages that it enhances between the economy’s two pillars: industry & agriculture.
Improves choices for consumers: Nowadays, food processing enables imported food to be
transported to our regional market & conversely.
Improves the taste & quality of food whereby more options are brought in the food basket.
Extended shelf life with nutritive quality preservation: This is performed by preventing
food spoilage caused by spoilage agents like microbes.
Crop diversification: Food processing will need various kinds of inputs thereby forming an
incentive for the farmer to diversify & grow crops.
Control food inflation: Food processing elevates the shelf life hence supplies are kept in
tune with the needs and thus controls food inflation.
Controlling migration: Being a laborious sector, the food processing industry will offer
regional job possibilities and hence will lower the push factor in main migration places.
Ameliorate trade & earns foreign exchange: This is a significant port for foreign exchange.
Lowers food wastage: With more proper grading and sorting, and shifting more products to
the food processing industry, this wastage could be lowered, resulting in a reasonable price
for farmers.
Lowers malnutrition: Processed food products enriched with minerals & vitamins can lower
the nutritional gap in the community.
Increasing farmer’s income: With the soaring need for agri-products, there will be a
corresponding increase in the farmer’s income.
Employment generation: It offers indirect and direct job opportunities.
 NECESSITY OF SENSORS IN FOOD PROCESSING
Microbial contamination management is a crucial task in the food industry.
Undesirable microbial spoilage in a modern food processing plant poses a risk to consumers’ health,
causing severe economic losses to the manufacturers and retailers, contributing to wastage of food
and a concern to the world’s food supply. The main goal of the quality management is to reduce the
time interval between the filling and the detection of a microorganism before release, from several
days, to minutes or, at most, hours.
This would allow the food company to stop the production, limiting the damage to just a part of the
entire batch, with considerable savings in terms of product value, thereby avoiding the utilization of
raw materials, packaging and strongly reducing food waste.
Sensor systems offer major advantages over current systems as they are versatile and affordable but
need to be integrated in the existing processing systems as a process analytical control (PAT) tool.
The desire for good selectivity, low cost, portable and usable at working sites, sufficiently rapid to be
used at-line or on-line, and no sample preparation devices are required. 

The following factors are considered while selecting the sensor

 Sensor Accuracy  Calibration – requirements and methods
 Size of the sensor
 Cost of the sensor and cost of replacement
 Output repeatability
 Circuit complexity
 Resistance to contamination
 Reliability of the sensor
 NECESSITY OF SENSORS IN FOOD PROCESSING
Common applications of sensor in the food manufacturing process include process
monitoring, shelf-life investigation, freshness evaluation, authenticity assessment and
other quality control studies.

Because of their versatility and high level of functionality or application different sensor
are used in the food processing industries

some of them are

proximity sensors (inductive, capacitive, and ultrasonic),
temperature sensor (resistance temperature detector,
infrared sensor, thermistor and thermocouple),
humidity sensors (optical, gravimetric, capacitive, resistive, piezoresistive, and
magnetoelastic sensors),
bio-sensor (amperometric, conductometer, thermometric biosensor and potentiometric
biosensor),
chemosensor, pressure sensors,
E-tongue taste sensors,
torque sensors,
freshness sensor,
pH-sensor and gas sensor
 Batch and continuous processes in food

A batch process is a process in which one batch is made and finished before
the other is started. In a small scale bakery most processes will be batch.
Kneading the dough will be done in a bowl with a mixer blade. Only when all
the dough is finished, the bowl will be emptied and the next batch is started.
The same for the oven: a rack of dough is put in the oven, only when this batch
is finished will a new batch be put in.

A continuous process on the other hand goes on continuously. In other words,

you don’t wait until a batch is finished before starting the new process, instead,
you keep on doing the one process. Again, when looking at a bakery, in a large
scale bakery, the oven is run continuously. Bread is continuously going in and
out. This is done by using a belt which runs through the oven, this keeps on
running all the time.
Advantages & disadvantages of batch processing
The great advantage of batch processing is that it is a flexible process. You can make small batches of products and it is easy to make slight variations in your products from batch to batch. Let’s say you’re making
cupcakes, lemon, raspberry and chocolate. After every mixing bowl, you’ll start a new one thus you can make a new flavour, no problem.
Another advantage is that you have some flexibility in how you perform your process. If your ingredients behave slightly different, it is relatively easy to change some aspects of the batch slightly and still make it work.
Also, equipment for batch processing tends to be cheaper. It probably requires less stringent control. 

 Although, a disadvantage is that you have to keep on cleaning/starting up between every batch. That said, overall risk with a batch process can be lower as well. If with a continuous process something goes wrong
(e.g. you have a microbiological contamination), the effect can be huge. However, if you produce in a food safe manner, the impact will be smaller with a batch process, most likely, only one batch will be affected.
Advantages & disadvantages of continuous processing
The big advantage of continuous processing is the consistent continuous quality of the product. It will be pretty much identical no matter when it’s made on the line. That said, it is less flexible than a batch
process, it is often harder to change between those different muffin flavours.
Another big advantage is that once the process is running, there’s not a lot that has to be done anymore. No cleaning of bowls in between, the process will keep running. This requires less labour for
production.

However, investment costs are often a lot higher than for a batch process. Whether or not this will make sense mostly depends on the volumes you need.
 Bakery Processing Equipment
Reading Bakery Systems (RBS) designs, engineers and
manufactures state-of-the-art industrial bakery processing
equipment and complete turnkey production systems for
customers around the globe.

RBS is a long-time global leader in the snack food industry, our

industry-leading brands – Thomas L. Green, Reading Pretzel and
Exact Mixing – serve the biscuit, cookie, cracker, pretzel, baked
potato chip, bread snack, sweet goods and pet treat industries.
Turnkey Production Systems

A complete turnkey systems that can help you efficiently and profitably
produce a wide range of baked snacks, consider RBS’ innovative 
Hard & Soft Biscuit System which creates a variety of sheeted and
rotary moulded biscuits and has the flexibility to integrate batch or
continuous mixing. Production volumes range from 500 – 2500 kg/hr.

With  Multi-Crisp Baked Snack System, you can produce a variety of

wheat, potato, multi-grain and corn masa flour crisps on one flexible
system. The system can produce between 250-1000 kg/hr of finished
product, depending on the number of oven sections after the dough
sheeting equipment.
Continuous Mixing Technology
Producing large quantities of consistent, uniform dough can be a
challenge, and batch mixing can lead to dough variations that affect the
consistency of your products. The solution is our continuous mixing
equipment which accurately delivers ingredients to the mixer at rates
high enough to help you produce a better quality finished product.

The Exact MX Continuous Mixer, for example, is our most versatile

mixer. It offers dough production rates from 50 to 2,000 kg/hour and is
ideal for a wide range of products including cookies, snacks, pizza,
batters, icings, and pastes.

The Exact EX Continuous Mixer is well-suited for low-absorption, stiff,

wheat-based doughs, such as for crackers, bagels, pretzels, sweet
goods and pet treats, and the Exact HDX Continuous Mixer is ideal for
ultra-high absorption doughs for buns, breads, rolls, English muffins or
tortillas.
Dough Handling and Forming Technology
RBS also offers customers an extensive range of other equipment
for dough handling and forming in between the mixer and the
oven.
For extruded and co-extruded products, the 
Low Pressure (LP) Extruder enables consistent and accurate
production of a variety of structural, flat and filled extruded shapes
and sticks. Also explore the Thomas L. Green Rotary Moulder
, which efficiently produces high definition, three dimensional
rotary moulded shapes.

https://www.readingbakery.com/resources/ba
kery-processing-equipment.html
Baking Technology
The PRISM OVEN is designed to enhance product consistency.
Features include:
•Direct gas fired (DGF), convection, and Emithermic (radiant /
convection) baking zones
•Better baking efficiency with uniform quality, color, taste and texture
•Repeatable control of time, temperature, humidity and type of heat
transfer
When your product line involves pretzels, baked potato chips and
other crisp baked snacks, the flexible Reading Pretzel 
SPECTRUM OVEN® offers the same flexibility as the PRISM OVEN
and features:
•Radiation, convection and conduction heat transfer options
•Repeatable control of time, temperature, humidity and type of heat
transfer
•Separate heating zones for more precise control
•Stainless steel interior construction
Cutting-edge equipment optimizes output and efficiency
to improve your products and your process.

•Efficient and precise dough forming

•Consistent and accurate piece weights
•Quick, easy, low-cost product changeovers
•Bandcutter manually retracts for maintenance and
sanitation
•Jacketed extrusion housings for temperature control
•Lightweight, seamless plastic hoppers for easy
sanitation
•Bandcutter operates at up to 275 cuts per minute (cpm)
or in cycle mode up to 50 cpm