Unit Operations in Food Processing
FST-3103
3(2-1)
Dr. Shahnah Qureshi
Assistant Professor
SFAS, UMT
Week 2: Lecture 2
Unit Operations in Food Processing
Class Learning Outcome
• Differentiate between unit operations, unit processes,
utility, and supplementary systems in the food industry
LLOs
• 1.1. Understand the unit operation in
food processing and objectives of unit
operations in food processing
• 1.2. Differentiate the unit operation and unit process
• 1.3. Classification of unit operations
2
Introduction to Unit Operations:
Fundamental Concepts
Introduction to unit operation in food
processing
• Unit operation is a food processing operation in which raw
materials undergo physical changes and produce desired
products
• For example: separation, crystallization, evaporation, filtration,
drying, mixing, pasteurization, refrigeration, freezing,
extrusion, size reduction, heat transfer, fluid flow etc.
• A process may require many unit operations to obtained
the desired products
For example, in milk processing, homogenization, pasteurization,
and packaging
Introduction to unit operation in food
processing
• Extrusion cooking of pasta:
Introduction to unit operation in food
processing
• Production of Fruit
Juice Concentrate
Objectives of Unit operations in food
processing
1. To study the principles and laws governing the physical,
chemical, or biochemical stages of different processes, and the
apparatus or equipment by which such stages are industrially
carried out
2. The studies should be focused on the transformation processes of
agricultural raw materials into final products, or on conservation
of materials and products
Objectives of Unit operation in food
processing
Physical stages: grinding, sieving, mixer, sedimentation,
floatation, filtration, absorption, extraction, heat
exchange, evaporation etc.
Chemical stages: Refining (removal of lecithin,
phosphatides, bleaching, deodorizing ),
chemical peeling
Biochemical stages: Fermentation, sterilization, pasteurization,
enzymatic peeling
Unit Operations: Classifications
Most of the unit operations in the food industries are carried
out through:
1. Fluid flow processes
2. Heat transfer process
3. Mass transfer processes
4. Thermodynamic processes
5. Mechanical processes
Mass Transfer Unit Operations
These operations are controlled by the diffusion of a
component within a mixture.
Distillation: separation of one or more components by taking
advantage of vapor pressure differences
Absorption: In chemistry, absorption is a process by which a substance
incorporated in one state is transferred into another substance of a
different state (e.g., gases being absorbed by a liquid or liquids being
absorbed by a solid). The opposite process is called desorption
Extraction: based on the dissolution of a mixture (liquid or solid) in
a selective solvent, which can be liquid–liquid or solid–liquid. The
latter is also called washing etc.
Heat Transfer Unit Operations
These operations are controlled by temperature gradients.
They depend on the mechanism by which heat is transferred:
Conduction: in continuous material media, heat flows in the
direction of temperature decrease and there is no macroscopic
movement of mass
Convection: the enthalpy flow associated with a moving fluid
is called convective flow of heat. Convection can be natural or
forced
Radiation: energy transmission by electromagnetic waves,
No material media are needed for its transmission
Thermal treatments (sterilization and pasteurization),
evaporation, heat exchangers, ovens, solarplates, etc. are studied
based on these heat transfer mechanisms
Simultaneous Mass–Heat Transfer Unit
Operations
In these operations a concentration and a temperature
gradient exist at them same time:
Humidification and dehumidification: include the objectives of
humidification and dehumidification of a gas (i.e. air).
Dehydration
Elimination of a water contained within a solid. The application of
heat changes the liquid, contained in a solid, into a vapor phase. In
freeze-drying, the liquid in solid phase is removed by sublimation,
i.e., by changing it into a vapor phase.
Summary
Students have learned about:
• what is unit operation and the objectives of
unit operations in food processing
• Unit operation in food processing is basically to
carried out some physical changes in the raw material
to convert into valuable products
• Basic phenomenon involve like mass transfer,
heat transfer, fluid flow, mechanical
transformation, thermodynamics processes