COURSE CONTENT

Thermal Processing (Steam):

1. Basic Principles: Characteristics of raw food; Material transfer and fluid flow; Heat transfer;
Water activity; Spoilage & Deterioration mechanisms; Food Preservation Unit Operations;
Effect of processing on Sensory & Nutritional properties; Microbial risks; Food Safety
Issues.
2. Blanching: Steam; Hot Water; Effect on foods.
3. Pasteurisation: Liquids; packaged foods;
4. Heat sterilization: Retorting; Cans; Pouches; UHT and Aseptic processes.
5. Evaporation and Distillation: Boiling Point elevation; Types of evaporators; Selection of
evaporators; single and multiple effect evaporators; Vapor compression; Simple distillation
systems; Continuous and batch.
6. Using Hot Air - Psychrometrics. Properties of Dry Air; Properties of Water Vapour; AirVapour mixtures; dew-point; humidity ratio; relative humidity; wet bulb temperature;
psychrometric chart.
7. Dehydration: Drying process; Moisture diffusion; Drying rate curves (constant and falling
rate periods); Drying time predictions; Mass and energy Balances; Drying systems.
Other Processing Methods
1. Frying: Frying process; Contact frying; deep fat frying; Frying systems.
2. Irradiation: Theory and Practice.
3. Electric fields and High Pressure: Theory and Practice.
Packaging Operations
1. Packaging principles: Packaging materials; Impact of light, heat, moisture and gases on
packaged foods; Packaging materials; Hermetic seals versus non-hermetic seals;
Applications; Packaging and food interactions; Environmental concerns.