EBE 2402: AGRICULTURAL

PROCESSES ENGINEERING
PETER MWAURAH
AGRICULTURAL AND BIOSYSTEMS
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
UNIT OPERATIONS IN FOOD
PROCESSING
⚫ Food process engineering is about the operation of
processes in which food is manufactured, modified and
packaged.
⚫ Process – a set of actions in a specific sequence to a specific
end.
⚫ Actions constituting a process may be grouped into a
relatively small number of operations governed by basic
principles and essentially similar purposes – unit operations
⚫ Two major categories of processes are usually considered;
 Those which ensure food safety that is preservation
techniques such as freezing and sterilization,
which usually involve the transfer of
heat and induce changes to microbial populations.
 Those which may be classified as manufacturing
steps. Examples of the latter include addition of
components in mixing, the separation of
1. Material Handling
Includes; Harvesting, refrigerated trucking of perishable
produce, transportation of live animals, conveying a product
from truck or rail car to storage

2. Cleaning
⚫ Cleaning is the unit operation in which contaminating
materials are removed from the food and separated to leave
the surface of the food in a suitable condition for further
processing.
⚫ Equipment for cleaning is categorised into wet procedures
(for example soaking, spraying, flotation washing and
ultrasonic cleaning) and dry procedures (separation by air,
magnetism or physical methods)
 Types of Cleaning
 Wet cleaning
• Wet cleaning is more effective than dry methods for
removing soil from root crops or dust and
pesticide residues from soft fruits or
vegetables.
• It is also dustless and causes less damage to foods than
dry methods.
• Different combinations of detergents and sterilants at
different temperatures allow flexibility in
operation.
 Dry cleaning
• Dry cleaning procedures are used for products that are
smaller, have greater mechanical strength
and possess a lower moisture content
(for example grains and nuts).
• After cleaning, the surfaces are dry, to aid
preservation or further drying.
• The main groups of equipment used for dry cleaning
are:
 air cleaner
 magnetic separators
 separators based on screening of foods
Typical produce washing
machine
3. Sorting
⚫ Sorting is the separation of foods into categories on the basis
of a measurable physical property.
⚫ Like cleaning, sorting should be employed as early as possible
to ensure a uniform product for subsequent processing.The
four main physical properties used to sort foods are size,
shape, weight and colour

Belt and Roller sorter

Colour sorting
Manual sorting by colour is still widely used but is
increasingly expensive in both labour costs, operator training and
the space required for sorting tables.
There has therefore been considerable development of machine
vision sorting systems which are said to have lower operating costs
and greater accuracy than manual methods.These include
⚫ monochrome (black and white),
⚫ bichrome (4100 shades of red and green) and
⚫ trichromatic or full colour (262 000 shades of red, green
and blue, with optional infrared).
Each is controlled by a programmable logic controller which has pre-
set programs for different products that are easily changeable by
operators using a video display.
4. Grading
⚫ Often used interchangeably with sorting but strictly means
‘the assessment of overall quality of a food using a
number of attributes’.
⚫ Grading is carried out by operators who are trained to
simultaneously assess a number of variables.
⚫ For example, eggs are visually inspected over tungsten
lights (termed ‘candling’) to assess up to twenty factors
and remove those that are for example, fertilised or
malformed and those that contain blood spots or rot.
⚫ Meats, for example, are examined by inspectors for disease,
fat distribution, bone to flesh ratio and carcass size and shape.
⚫ Developments in meat inspection using image processing
and computer analysis to assess a large number of factors,
including bruising, skin colour and damage on
chicken meat
5. Peeling
⚫ Peeling is used in the processing of many fruits and vegetables to remove unwanted
or inedible material, and to improve the appearance of the final product.
⚫ The main consideration is to minimise costs by removing as little of the
underlying food as possible and reducing energy, labour and material costs to a
minimum.
⚫ The peeled surface should be clean and undamaged.
⚫ There are five main methods of peeling:
1. Flash steam peeling – product is fed into slow rotating pressure vessel and high
pressure steam introduced. Food surface is exposed for specified period.
Releasing pressure causes surface of food to flash off
2. Knife peeling – stationary blades are pressed against rotating fruit/vegetable.
Used for apples, pears and pineapples
3. Abrasion peeling – commodity is placed in a rotating bowl lined with
carborundum crystals which act as abrasive surface. Skin removed from
surface by continuous water supply
4. Caustic peeling (lye peeling) Boiling aqueous solution of caustic soda used with
ample water supply and heat source. Hot lye loosens skin from fllesh then
removed by gentle rubbing
5. Flame peeling – conveyor belt carries and rotates food through furnace. Used
for
onion, garlic etc
6. MECHANICAL SEPARATION
Mechanical separations can be divided into four groups
–  sedimentation,
 centrifugal separation,
 filtration and sieving.
⚫ Achieved on the basis of density or size and shape
⚫ Density based separations include
 Cream from milk
 Solids from suspension
 Removal of bacteria from fluid
⚫ Clarification - Done with a clarifier-a disc type centrifuge that
applies forces of 5,000-10,000 times gravity and forces
denser materials to the outside.
⚫ Used to remove sediment and microorganisms.
⚫ Allows solids to be removed
Sedimentation
• Sedimentation, two immiscible liquids, or a liquid and a
solid, differing in density, are separated by
allowing them to come to equilibrium
under the action of gravity, the heavier material
falling with respect to the lighter.
• Sedimentation uses gravitational forces to separate
particulate material from fluid streams.
• The particles are usually solid, but they can be small
liquid
droplets, and the fluid can be either a liquid or a gas.
• Sedimentation is very often used in the food industry
for
 separating dirt and debris from incoming raw material,
 crystals from their mother liquor and
 dust or product particles from air streams.
• In sedimentation, particles are falling from rest under the
Centrifugal separation
⚫ The separation by sedimentation of two immiscible liquids, or
of a liquid and a solid, depends on the effects of gravity
on the components.
⚫ Sometimes this separation may be very slow because the
specific gravities of the components may not be very
different, or because of forces holding the components in
association, for example as occur in emulsions.
Pneumatic Separation
⚫ In the food industry, air is often used to remove foreign
particles (e.g. straw, hull, and chaff ) or for classification
purposes.
⚫ Allows the standardization of heterogeneous particle
mixtures into uniform fractions based on their density and
mass.
Sieving
• In the final separation operation in this group, restraint is imposed on
some of the particles by mechanical screens that prevent their
passage.
• This is done successively, using increasingly smaller screens, to
give a series of particles classified into size ranges. The fluid,
usually air, can effectively be ignored in this operation which is
called sieving.
• The material is shaken or agitated above a mesh or cloth screen;
particles of smaller size than the mesh openings can pass
through under the force of gravity.
• Rates of throughput of sieves are dependent upon a number of
factors:
 nature and the shape of the particles,
 frequency and the amplitude of the shaking,
 methods used to prevent sticking or
bridging of particles in the
 apertures of the sieve and
Centrifugal clarifiers
⚫ Used to separate solids from liquids
⚫ In the cylindrical bowl type, the liquor to be clarified is
introduced into the bowl, and solids form a cake on the bowl
wall.
⚫ When the cake has built up to a certain thickness, the bowl is
drained and the cake removed through an opening in the
bottom cylinder
7. Mixing and forming
⚫ Mixing (or blending) is a unit operation in which a uniform mixture
is obtained from two or more components, by dispersing one within
the other(s).
⚫ Mixing has no preservative effect and is intended solely as a processing
aid or to alter the eating quality of foods.
⚫ It has very wide applications in many food industries where it is used to
combine ingredients to achieve different functional properties or
sensory characteristics.
⚫ Examples include texture development in dough and ice cream, control
of sugar crystallization and aeration of batters
and some chocolate products.
⚫ In some foods, adequate mixing is necessary to ensure that the proportion
of each component complies with legislative standards (for example
mixed vegetables, mixed nuts, sausages and other
meat products).
⚫ Extruders and some types of size reduction equipment also have a mixing
Forming
⚫ Is a size enlargement operation in which foods that have a
high viscosity or a dough-like texture are moulded into a variety of
shapes and sizes, often immediately after a mixing operation.
⚫ It is used as a processing aid to increase the variety and
convenience of baked goods, confectionery and snack foods. It
has no direct effect on the shelf life or nutritional value of foods.
⚫ Close control over the size of formed pieces is critical (for
example to ensure uniform rates of heat transfer to the center of
baked foods, to control the weight pieces of food, and to ensure
the uniformity of smaller foods and hence to
control fill weights).
Separation and concentration of food components
⚫ Foods are complex mixtures of compounds and the extraction or
separation of food components is fundamental for the preparation
of ingredients to be used in other processes (for
example cooking oils from oilseeds or
gelatin from connective tissue); or for retrieval of high value
compounds, such as enzymes (e.g. papain from papaya for
meat tenderization).
⚫ There are three main categories of unit operations that are used for the
physical removal of food components by separation, extraction
or concentration
 Separation of liquids and solids from slurries, pastes, particulates or
flours, where either one or both components may
be valuable (for example juices, pectin, enzymes,
cooking oil, cream and coffee solubles).
 Separation of small amounts (less than 2%) of solids from liquids. Here
the main purpose is purification of water or
clarification of liquids such as wine, beer, juices, etc.
8. Mechanical Expression
⚫ The extraction of oil or juice from plant materials presents
an additional challenge since it requires the disruption
of cell structures and hull-protected seeds of varying
thickness and resistance.
⚫ Expression is the oldest method applied for oilseeds extraction.
⚫ The preconditioned oilseeds are pressed in a permeable barrel-
like cavity where shear forces, combined or not with heat,
squeeze the oil out from the seeds.
⚫ Second, the “cake” products, or de-oil material, exit from one
side of the press as oil flows throughout the barrel’s
openings and is collected
⚫ Two kinds of presses can be employed for pressing purposes:
the screw press and the hydraulic press.
9. Fermentation and enzyme technology
⚫ Fermented foods are among the oldest processed foods and
have formed a traditional part of the diet in almost all
countries for millennia.
⚫ During food fermentations, the controlled action of selected micro-
organisms is used to alter the texture of foods, preserve foods by
production of acids or alcohol, or to produce subtle flavors and
aromas which increase the quality and value of raw materials.
⚫ Use of microorganisms to convert foods (raw commodities) into
a more stable form.
⚫ Fermentation is a microbial biotechnology whereby natural
renewable substrates are converted to value-added products such
as enzymes, organic acids, alcohols, polymers, and more.
⚫ Typically the conversion of carbohydrates into acid or alcohol.
Some additional antimicrobial compounds may be formed.
⚫ Fermented vegetable is produced through the action of lactic
acid bacteria (LAB) which enhances the nutritional value by
increasing vitamin levels and improving digestibility.
⚫ Traditional fermentation could keep the product for only 1-3
days.
⚫ Employing GMP and appropriate preservative, the product can
be kept for at least one month.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE FERMENTATION
⚫ Type of organism
⚫ Oxygen availability-Dissolved oxygen is an essential
substrate for aerobic fermentation. Microorganisms can be
categorized as aerobic, anaerobic, and facultative anaerobes
⚫ Temperature -Each microorganism has a specific
temperature for optimal growth and production rates
(g/L/h).
⚫ pH - pH is another parameter requiring optimization for
high microbial growth and production rates. In general,
bacteria have an acceptable range of pH 3–8; for yeast,
the range narrows down to pH 3–6, and for molds, optimal
pH is 3–7.
⚫ Aw
⚫ The main advantages of fermentation as a method of
food processing are:
 the use of mild conditions of pH and temperature
which maintain (and often improve)the
nutritional properties and sensory
characteristics of the food
 the production of foods which have flavors or textures
that cannot be achieved by other methods
 low energy consumption due to the mild operating
conditions
 relatively low capital and operating costs
 Relatively simple technologies
10. Irradiation
Ionizing radiation takes the form of γ-rays from isotopes
or, commercially to a lesser extent, from X-rays and
electrons. It is permitted in 38 countries to preserve foods by
destruction of micro- organisms or inhibition of biochemical
changes.
The main advantages of irradiation are as follows:
⚫ there is little or no heating of the food and therefore
negligible change to sensory characteristics
⚫ packaged and frozen foods may be treated
⚫ fresh foods may be preserved in a single operation, and
without the
use of chemical preservatives
⚫ energy requirements are very low
⚫ changes in nutritional value of foods are comparable with
other methods of food preservation
⚫ Processing is automatically controlled and has low operating
11. Processing by application of heat
Heat treatment remains one of the most important methods used in
food processing, not only because of the desirable effects on
eating quality (many foods are consumed in a cooked form and
processes such as baking produce flavors that cannot be created by
other means), but also because of the preservative effect on
foods by the destruction of enzymes, micro-organisms, insects
and parasites.
The other main advantages of heat processing are:
⚫ relatively simple control of processing conditions
⚫ capability to produce shelf-stable foods that do not
require refrigeration
⚫ destruction of anti-nutritional factors (e.g. trypsin inhibitor in
some legumes)
⚫ improvement in the availability of some nutrients (e.g. improved
digestibility of proteins, gelatinization of starches and release of
bound niacin).
HEAT PROCESSING: Use of high temperatures to
destroy enzymes and microorganisms that could
reduce quality and/or safety of food

1. BLANCHING - A mild heat treatment that primarily

destroys enzymes and reduces microbial load (does not
necessarily kill pathogens), further preservation
methods needed to extend shelf life.
Example:Vegetables, frozen, canned
2. PASTEURIZATION - A mild heat treatment used
primarily to destroy pathogenic organisms but it also
destroys enzymes and reduces microbial load.
Requires an addition preservation method to
extend shelf life (example:
refrigeration, drying).
3. COMMERCIAL STERILIZATION –
A severe heat treatment that destroys pathogenic and
many microorganisms that could spoil food. Extends
shelf life, room temperature stable. (canned foods)
FACTORS INFLUENCING CHOICE OF HEAT TREATMENTS

1. Type of food
2. Level of contamination
3. Presence of oxygen
4. Heat resistance of organisms or enzymes
5. Heat penetration
º characteristics of the food
6. Packaging material
7. Size of container
8. Sensory qualities desired
 BLANCHING OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

WATER: Typically 85-90° C

⚫ 1.5 (peas) to 12 minutes (corn on the cob); Some
exceptions: green beans.
⚫ STEAM: 100 ° C at ATM Pressure
OBJECTIVES:
1. Inactivate enzymes**
A. Metabolic
B. Maintain color
C. Texture
D. Flavor
E. Nutritive value
 BLANCHING OF FRUITS AND
VEGETABLES

OBJECTIVES (cont.):
2. Lower microbial load (combination of rinsing action
and heat)
3. Aids in packaging – wilts vegetables and
removes respiratory gases
4. Removes dirt, leaves, etc.
5. Aids in peeling
 PASTEURIZATION
⚫ Pasteurization refers to the heat treatment of food products, mostly
liquid or liquid with particulates, to inactivate vegetative
pathogenic microorganisms
⚫ Used for milk, liquid eggs, fruit juices and beer.
⚫ Destroy pathogens
⚫ Reduce microbial load (numbers)
⚫ Inactivate enzymes
⚫ Extend shelf life
⚫ MILK PASTEURIZATION: The time temperature combination for the
pasteurization of milk, for instance, is 63 C for 30 min, referred to
as a low temperature, long-time (LTLT)
process, and 72 C for 15 sec, referred to as
a high-temperature, short-time (HTST) process.
 STERILIZATION
⚫ Sterilization refers to killing of all living
microorganisms, including spores, in the food
product.
⚫ Food products are never completely sterilized; instead, they
are rendered commercially sterile.
⚫ Commercial sterility means the condition achieved either by
1. The application of heat, which renders the food free of
microorganisms capable of reproducing in the food under
normal non-refrigerated conditions of storage and distribution,
and viable microorganisms (including spores) of public health
significance, or
2. The control of water activity and the application of heat,
which renders the food free of microorganisms capable of
reproducing in the food under normal non-refrigerated
conditions of storage and distribution.
 CANNING
Advantages
⚫ Enables year round availability without freezing
⚫ Overcomes some export limitations e.g. transport or
quarantine
⚫ Prevents the re-entry of microorganisms thus the life of
the product is longer

The process involves cutting, washing, blanching and then

hot- loading in to the can, which is then sealed
The can is heat treated (immersion into boiling water) after
sealing
to ensure all microorganisms are killed before being
quickly cooled
Packaging materials used in canning
A. Metal
º Tin/iron/tin cans
º Aluminum
B. Glass
C. Plastic/metal/fiber
flexible pouches
ASEPTIC PROCESSING AND PACKAGING
⚫ In aseptic processing of foods, the product and the package
are sterilized separately and brought
together in a sterile environment.
⚫ The product is stable for 2-3 months without refrigeration
⚫ Prior to packaging, the liquid product is heated quickly to a
temperature at which it is commercially sterile and then
cooled
⚫ The packages are subjected to combination of chemical and
heat treatment
Economic advantages:
 Can use packaging materials that are cheaper than metal and
glass containers
 The saving of heat energy
 The preservation of flavours
SIZE REDUCTION
⚫ Raw materials often occur in sizes that are too large to be used and,
therefore, they must be reduced in size.
⚫ This size-reduction operation can be divided into two major categories
depending on whether the material is a solid or a liquid.
⚫ If it is solid, the operations are called grinding and cutting,
⚫ If it is liquid, emulsification or atomization.
⚫ All depend on the reaction to shearing forces within solids and liquids

Benefits of size reduction

⚫ Increase in the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the food which increases
the rate of drying, heating or cooling
⚫ When combined with screening, predetermined range of particle sizes is
produced which is important for the correct functional or
processing properties of some products (for example
icing sugar, spices and cornstarch).
⚫ A similar range of particle sizes allows more complete mixing of
ingredients (for example dried soup and cake mixes)
⚫ Size reduction can be achieved by three types of
forces
⚫ Compression
⚫ Impact
⚫ Attrition
GRINDING AND CUTTING
Grinding and cutting reduce the size of solid materials by
mechanical action, dividing them into smaller particles.
Application:
⚫ milling of grains to make flour,
⚫ grinding of corn for manufacture of corn starch,
⚫ the grinding of sugar and
⚫ the milling of dried foods, such as vegetables.
Cutting is used to break down large pieces of food into smaller
pieces suitable for further processing, such as
⚫ in the preparation of meat for retail sales and
⚫ in the preparation of processed meats and processed vegetables.
Grinding is achieved by mechanical stress followed by rupture and
the
energy required depends upon the hardness of the material and
also upon the tendency of the material to crack – its friability.
The force applied may be compression, impact, or shear,
and Extent of grinding dependent on
⚫ the magnitude of the force and
⚫ the time of application affect the extent of grinding
achieved. Excess energy is lost as heat and this loss should
be kept as low as practicable.
The important factors to be studied in the grinding process are
the amount of energy used and the amount of new
surface formed by grinding.
Extrusion
⚫ Extrusion is a process that converts raw material into a
product with a desired shape and form, such as pasta,
snacks, textured vegetable protein, and ready-to-eat cereals, by
forcing the material through a small opening using pressure
⚫ Some of the unique advantages of extrusion include
high productivity, adaptability, process scale-up, energy
efficiency, low cost, and zero effluents
⚫ An extruder consists of a tightly fitting screw rotating within
a stationary barrel. Within the extruder, thermal and shear
energies are applied to a raw food material to transform it
to the final extruded product
⚫ Preground and conditioned ingredients enter the barrel
where they are conveyed, mixed, and heated by a variety of
screw and barrel configurations.
⚫ Inside the extruder, the food may be subjected to several
unit operations, including fluid flow, heat transfer, mixing,
shearing, size reduction, and melting.
⚫ The product exits the extruder through a die, where it
usually puffs (if extruded at >100C and higher than
atmospheric pressure) and changes texture from the release of
steam and normal forces
⚫ Extruded products may undergo a number of structural,
chemical, and nutritional changes including starch gelatinization,
protein
⚫ denaturation, lipid oxidation, degradation of vitamins,
and formation of flavors
 Refrigeration and freezing
⚫ The storage life of fresh perishable foods such as meats,
fish, vegetables, and fruits can be extended by several days by
storing them at temperatures just above freezing, usually
between 1 and 4oC.
⚫ The storage life of foods can be extended by several months
by freezing and storing them at subfreezing temperatures,
usually between -18 and -35C, depending on the particular food
⚫ Ordinary refrigeration of foods involves cooling only without
any phase change.
⚫ The freezing of foods, on the other hand, involves three stages:
 coolingto the freezing point (removing the sensible heat),
 freezing(removing the latent heat), and
 further cooling to the desired subfreezing
temperature (removing the sensible heat of
frozen food),
Typical freezing curve of a food item
 Forced air cooling
⚫ Modification of room cooling and is accomplished by exposing
packages of produce to higher air pressure on one side than on
the other.
⚫ Involves definite stacking patterns and the baffling of stacks so that
the cooling air is forced through (rather than around) the
individual containers.
⚫ For successful forced air cooling operations, it is required that
containers with vent holes be placed in the direction of the
moving air and packaging materials that would
interfere with free movement of air
through the containers should be minimized.
 Hydrocooling
⚫ Is the utilization of chilled or cold water for lowering the
temperature of a product in bulk or smaller containers
before further packing.
⚫ Achieved by flooding, spraying, or immersing the
product in/with chilled water
⚫ Various type of hydrocoolers are available
1. Conventional (flood) type
2. Immersion type
3. Batch type
 Vacuum cooling
⚫ Vacuum cooling involves reducing pressure inside a
sealed chamber. Water inside the vegetables turns to vapour,
absorbing heat energy.
⚫ The rate of cooling depends primarily upon the
 ratio of surface area of the product to its weight or
volume,
 the ease with which water is given up from the
product
tissues ,
 the rate of vacuum drawn in the flash chamber and
 The temperature of the load at the start
⚫ Produce is loaded into a sealed container and the air is
pumped out.This reduces the pressure from normal air
(approximately 100 KPa) to a virtual vacuum (<1KPa).
Under these conditions water boils at <7°C.
 Cryogenic cooling
⚫ The use of the latent heat of evaporation of liquid nitrogen or solid
CO2 (dry ice) can produce `boiling' temperatures of -196 and -
780C, respectively.
⚫ Produce is cooled by conveying it through a tunnel in which
the liquid nitrogen or solid CO2 evaporates.
⚫ However, at the above temperatures the produce will freeze and thus
be ruined as a fresh market product.
⚫ This problem is prevented by careful control of the evaporation rate
and conveyor speed.
⚫ Relatively cheap to install but expensive to run.
⚫ Its main application is in cooling crops such as soft fruits, which
have a seasonal production period.
Evaporative cooling
⚫ Evaporative cooling is an inexpensive and effective method
of lowering produce temperature.
⚫ Most effective in areas where humidity is low.
⚫ Dry air is drawn through moist padding or a fine mist
of water, then through vented containers of produce.
⚫ As water changes from liquid to vapor, it absorbs heat
from the air, thereby lowering the produce temperature.
⚫ The incoming air should be less than 65 percent
relative humidity for effective evaporative cooling.
⚫ This method would be suitable for warm-season
crops requiring warmer storage temperatures such as
tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers or eggplant
PACKAGING AND CONVEYANCE OF
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
Packaging
⚫ Packaging can be defined as "the science, art and technology of
enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage,
sale, and use".
⚫ Packaging also refers to "the process of design, evaluation, and
production of packages".
⚫ Packaging can be regarded as different types. The single item such as a
bottle containing soft drink can be regarded as the item that a
consumer would purchase known as "primary"
packaging.
⚫ Whereas a pack of bottles, shrink wrapped, would be regarded as the
transport package used within the distribution chain is known
as "secondary" packaging.
⚫ Primary packaging is the material that first contains the product. This is
usually the package which is in direct contact with the contents.
For example, this could be a bottle or carton for
liquids; or a packet for various snack foods.
⚫ The secondary packaging is outside the primary packaging, perhaps used to
group primary packages together. For example, this could be a tray and shrink
film.
⚫ Secondary packaging is mainly used as a means of transporting the primary
packs or product from producer to retailer. This is usually removed and
recycled once the pack has reached its destination.
⚫ Secondary packaging can also be retained to enable the product to be
purchased
in bulk.
⚫ There are four key purposes of packaging,

1. Containment
This is the basic function of packaging. The product must be contained so that it
can be transported as required. Failure to contain the product leads to loss,
damage, and pollution of the environment.

2. Protection
This is especially important for perishable and easily damaged products. The
product must be protected from environmental effects, including water,
undesirable moisture vapor, odors, microorganisms, dust, shock, vibration,
and compression. The package also helps to reduce the risk of theft,
willful damage, and contamination.
3. Apportionment and Convenience
The package enables the product to be divided up into
convenient quantities so that it can be transported easily and
distributed in sizes that suit the retailer or consumer. For long-
distance transportation the primary packages must be designed so
that they can be unitized, that is, grouped together so they can be
transported as a single item such as a pallet load.
4. Communication
The package also must provide information about its contents.
The package provides the ideal place to give the information
needed for good quality management, with details about the
crop, including variety, quantity of fruit, harvest date, origin,
storage requirements, and grower identification. It can be also
used for marketing purposes (‘a package must protect what it sells
and sell what it protects’).
Packaging categories
1- primary
packaging
Primary packaging surrounds the
product
and features labelling.

2 secondary packaging
ease of manual movement of
products.

3 transit packaging
wrapping used to bundle the boxes or
crates for transport
Transit packaged and
products are
distribution.
placed in shipping containers for
long-distance transportation and
distribution
Packaging must comply with the following requirements:
1. The package must have sufficient mechanical strength to protect the
contents during handling, transport, and stacking.
2. The packaging material must be free of chemical substances that could
transfer to the produce and become toxic to man.
3. The package must meet handling and marketing requirements in terms of
weight, size, and shape.
4. The package should allow rapid cooling of the contents. Furthermore, the
permeability of plastic films to respiratory gases could also be important.
5. Mechanical strength of the package should be largely unaffected by
moisture content (when wet) or high humidity conditions.
6. The security of the package or ease of opening and closing might be
important in some marketing situations.
7. The package must either exclude light or be transparent.
8. The package should be appropriate for retail presentations.
9. The package should be designed for ease of disposal, re-use, or recycling.
10. Cost of the package in relation to value and the extent of contents
protection required should be as low as possible.
Classification of packaging:
Packages can be classified as follows:
⚫ Flexible sacks; made of plastic jute, such as bags (small sacks)
and nets (made of open mesh)
⚫ Wooden crates
⚫ Cartons (fiberboard boxes)
⚫ Plastic crates
⚫ Pallet boxes and shipping containers
⚫ Baskets made of woven strips of leaves, bamboo, plastic, etc.
Selecting the right material
Material selection is based on:
⚫ technical properties (strength, flexibility, etc.)
⚫ fitness for purpose (moisture barrier, cushioning,
etc.)
⚫ availability
⚫ manufacturing capability
⚫ cost
⚫ environmental impact
⚫ regulations
Types of Packaging Materials

⚫ From skins, leaves, and bark, tremendous progress has

been made in the development of diversified packaging
materials and in the packaging equipment.

⚫ In general, packaging materials may be grouped into

⚫ 1- rigid (wood, glass, metals, and hard plastics )
⚫ 2-flexible structures. (Plastic film, foil, paper, and textiles )
⚫ 1- Plastics

 Their foremost advantage is their wide diversity and extremely broad

spectrum of properties.
⚫ Plastics are relatively cheap, light, easily processed and shaped, and easy
to seal.
 Two major drawbacks are their permeability to gases and vapors ,
and the possibility of their interacting with the product.
Other components in plastics are residual monomer and oligomers,
additives such as heat and light stabilizers, antioxidants, plasticizers, and
UV absorbers, as well as processing aids such as lubricants, slip agents , and
antistatic agents.
 For package sterilization, the material of choice is polypropylene (PP),
which is used as the outer and inner plies of the laminate with
polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) as the middle layer to provide an oxygen
barrier.

Plastic
Bags Closures
Plastic

Oven-Safe Containers
The three main plastics used are :
PP, PS, and CPET. PP is suitable for microwaves

but now, PS low-density blends have been developed with

heat deflection temperatures (HDTs) of 190°C, which is
suitable for microwaves.
 Plastic–Food Interaction
Polymer materials are not absolute barriers.
Interactions occur between foods, packages, and polymer
materials…

In case of plastics, the major source of concern is the component

migration.

Migration from plastics is mainly due to:

1 residual components and reactants from the manufacturing process
2 compounds formed during conversion into packaging materials and
packages,
3 additives incorporated for functionality
4 adhesives used during conversion.
 Other factors includes crystallinity of polymers, glass–rubber
transition, environmental conditions, and composition of packaged
food.
⚫ Metals (Steel,Tin, Aluminum)
Steel, tin, and aluminum are used mainly for canned foods and
beverages. The most common use of metals for packaging is in tin-
coated steel and aluminum cans.

The principal advantages of metal cans are their strength providing

mechanical protection, effective barrier properties, and resistance to
high temperatures providing stability during processing.
Tins are advantageous for light-sensitive products.

 disadvantage in that contents are: invisible, heavy mass, high cost, and
tendency to interact with contents and environment (internal and external
corrosion)
 The critical concepts of canning are to ensure that the product in the can
is stable and that the seal provided by the metal is complete.
 Aluminum is used increasingly for canning due to its lightness, low cost,
corrosion resistance, availability, and recyclability.
 Aluminum is also used extensively in many non canning applications such
as foil packaging, caps, convenience food containers and lids, yogurt tub
lids, kitchenware, and laminates.

 Foil may be used for formed or semirigid containers.

⚫ Aluminum foil is difficult to use on modern fast packaging equipment
because of creases, tearing, and marking effects
 The steel can provide almost perfect barrier protection and,
due to its structural strength and ability to handle pressure,
can be retorted (cooked under pressure) after sealing .
Metal–Food Interaction:
Corrosion is the destructive attack on a metal through the
chemical or electrochemical reaction with the environment. Since steel
corrodes rapidly in the presence of acidic substances, the tin acts as a
barrier.
Some cans are lacquered internally for high-acid products (pH < 3)
or for products that change color in the presence of tin.

 Foods that contain sulfur produce a blackening of the tin.

 Glass
⚫ Advantages:
 Glass containers used to be and still are considered a prestigious means of
packaging, and serve for the most expensive wines, liqueurs, perfumes,
and cosmetics.

 It is highly inert, impermeable to gases and vapors, and amenable to the

most diverse shaping. It is an excellent oxygen barrier and completely
neutral in contact with foods

 It has the advantage of transparency, but where required it can be given

different desired colors.

 It has complete as well as selective light protection properties.

⚫ Disadvantages are :

 fragility, heavy mass, and high energy requirement during

manufacturing.

The main uses of glass for packaging are in milk bottles,

condiments, baby foods, instant coffee, and drinks.

Glass is not used for frozen products, or for ground or roasted coffee
because of breakage costs and the difficulty of vacuum flushing.
Questions?