Food engineering

Bread factory in Germany

Food engineering is a multidisciplinary field of applied physical sciences which combines science, microbiology, and engineering education for food and related industries. Food engineering includes, but is not limited to, the application of agricultural engineering, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering principles to food materials. Food engineers provide the technological knowledge transfer essential to the cost-effective production and commercialization of food products and services. Physics, chemistry, and mathematics are fundamental to understanding and engineering products and operations in the food industry.^[1]

Food engineering encompasses a wide range of activities. Food engineers are employed in food processing, food machinery, packaging, ingredient manufacturing, instrumentation, and control. Firms that design and build food processing plants, consulting firms, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and health-care firms also employ food engineers. Specific food engineering activities include:

• drug/food products;
• design and installation of food/biological/pharmaceutical production processes;
• design and operation of environmentally responsible waste treatment systems;
• marketing and technical support for manufacturing plants.

Topics in food engineering

In the development of food engineering, one of the many challenges is to employ modern tools, technology, and knowledge, such as computational materials science and nanotechnology, to develop new products and processes. Simultaneously, improving quality, safety, and security remain critical issues in food engineering study. New packaging materials and techniques are being developed to provide more protection to foods, and novel preservation technology is emerging. Additionally, process control and automation regularly appear among the top priorities identified in food engineering.^[2][3] Advanced monitoring and control systems are developed to facilitate automation and flexible food manufacturing. Furthermore, energy saving and minimization of environmental problems continue to be important food engineering issues, and significant progress is being made in waste management, efficient utilization of energy, and reduction of effluents and emissions in food production.

Typical topics include:

• Advances in classical unit operations in engineering applied to food manufacturing
• Progresses in the transport and storage of liquid and solid foods
• Developments in heating, chilling and freezing of foods
• Advanced mass transfer in foods
• New chemical and biochemical aspects of food engineering and the use of kinetic analysis
• New techniques in dehydration, thermal processing, non-thermal processing, extrusion, liquid food concentration, membrane processes and applications of membranes in food processing
• Shelf-life, electronic indicators in inventory management, and sustainable technologies in food processing
• Modern packaging, cleaning, and sanitation technologies.
• Development of sensors systems for quality and safety assessment^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

See also

• Cosmetics
• Pharmaceuticals
• Food science
• Food technology
• Aseptic processing
• Dietary supplement
• Food fortification
• Food preservation
• Food rheology
• Food supplements
• Future food technology
• Nutraceutical
• Nutrification (aka food enrichment or fortification)
• Food and bioprocess technology
• Food safety
• Food chemistry
• Food physical chemistry

References

1. Singh , R Paul; Dennis R. Heldman (2013). Introduction to Food Engineering (5th ed.). Academic Press. p. 1. ISBN 0123985307.
2. Grossi, M.; Lanzoni, M.; Lazzarini, R.; Riccò, B. (2012). "Automatici ce-cream characterization by impedance measurements for optimal machine setting". Measurement 45: 1747–1754. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2012.04.009.
3. Grossi, M.; Lazzarini, R.; Lanzoni, M.; Riccò, B. (2011). "A novel technique to control ice-cream freezing by electrical characteristics analysis". Journal of Food Engineering 106: 347–354. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2011.05.035.
4. Mabrook, M.F.; Petty, M.C. (2003). "Effect of composition on the electrical conductance of milk". Journal of Food Engineering 60 (3): 321–325. doi:10.1016/S0260-8774(03)00054-2.
5. Damez, J.L.; Clerion, S.; Abouelkaram, S.; Lepetit, J. (2008). "Beef meat electrical impedance spectroscopy and anisotropy sensing for non-invasive early assessment of meat ageing". Journal of Food Engineering 85 (1): 116–122. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.07.026.
6. Rehman, M.; Abu Izneid, J.A.; Abdullha, M.Z.; Arshad, M.R. (2011). "Assessment of quality of fruits using impedance spectroscopy". International Journal of Food Science & Technology 46 (6): 1303–1309. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2011.02636.x.
7. Harker, F.R.; Forbes, S.K. (1997). "Ripening and development of chilling injury in persimmon fruit: An electrical impedance study". New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science 25 (2): 149–157. doi:10.1080/01140671.1997.9514001.
8. Grossi, M.; Di Lecce, G.; Gallina Toschi, T.; Riccò, B. (2014). "Fast and accurate determination of olive oil acidity by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy". IEEE Sensors Journal 14 (9): 2947–2954. doi:10.1109/JSEN.2014.2321323.
9. Grossi, M.; Di Lecce, G.; Gallina Toschi, T.; Riccò, B. (2014). "A novel electrochemical method for olive oil acidity determination". Microelectronics Journal 45: 1701–1707. doi:10.1016/j.mejo.2014.07.006.