Food Process Engineering: An introduction

This textbook is made for you to use as a study book and as a source of reference and inspiration to work with problems related to food production. Most textbooks are focused on the separate unit operations used in a production. We have tried to put a few of these operations into the broader context of a production. Only a few operations are treated specifically (transport of fluids, heating and cooling) as these operations are universal in all food productions and link different parts of production. A food production plant might be overwhelming in its apparent complexity. The methods introduced make it possible to get an overview of processes. We have included a chapter on how to make block-dia¬grams and material balances. This should help in analysing a production and to isolate the most important processing steps. Most processes in a food production are of physical nature, thus we have included a chapter on relevant physical properties of foods and especially a part on rheological properties of food products. The remaining text is focused on the processes transport of fluids, transport of heat and transport of energy. The textbook ends with a chapter on heat exchangers and how to calculate the requirements of heat processing. Our goal is to put food engineering into a production context. Other courses teach food chemistry, food microbiology and food technology. Topics of great importance and all have to be seen in a broader context of producing good and safe food in a large scale. The content of this textbook constitutes a foundation for more in-depth teaching in the field unit operations and food technology in general. The textbook is supplied along with a set of cases and assignments which should be solved concurrently. The textbook is constructed in a way that makes it possible to read it with out using the assignments and cases. The content of this learning aid is not necessaraly used in chronological order. Examples of how to apply the subjects of the textbook is included in all chapters. The examples are built up of the sections: problem (outlines the task), data (defines the necessary parameters), solution (solves the task) and comment (sets the result in some perspective and gives additional information).