Types of Food Processing Equipment And Their Uses

When it comes to keeping food healthier longer, food processing has helped us come a long way. From keeping fresh vegetables and fruit longer through drying and freezing to preserving meat with salt, processing food has helped people keep food around longer while it stays safe to consume. But as the processes have involved, so has the equipment used throughout the history of food processing.

What is food processing equipment? It is a generic term and refers to a variety of components used to handle, cook, prepare, package, and store food items. These methods are used to either preserve food, allowing it to stay safe on the shelf for a longer time, or increase its disgestibility or palatibility. Each piece of food processing equipment has a job in the process, from washing and cooking to mixing and freezing.

Five of the most common types of food processing equipment include preparation, mechanical processing, heat processing, preservation, and packaging equipment. Preparation equipment works with raw food items and processes them by cleaning them and separating low quality items from what is going to be used in the final product. Steps include cleaning, grading, peeling or skinning and sorting food in wet and dry processes.

After the food items are sorted, mechanical processing begins. There is no heat or chemical application, and this equipment and step in the process is meant to reduce, enlarge, homogenize, or change the form of the sorted food items. Items make be chopped, mixed, formed, or otherwise made more uniform. The third type of food processing technology is the heat processing equipment, which adds heat to food items to preserve it and extend its shelf life. Heat processing includes baking, blanching, dehydration,  evaporation, roasting, pasteurization, frying, and sterilziation.

Preservation processing technology presents some of the most important duties of processed food - extending its shelf life. This equipment works to reduce spoilage, remove microorganisms and enzymes. Some processes require a chemical substance to prevent spoilage, irradation, refrigeration, water reduction, and more. One of the last steps, and one of the most common types of food processing equipment, is packaging. Food packaging processes include containment, protection (packaging in order to prevent spoilage), convenience (i.e. ready-to-eat meals), and communication (food labels, brand labels).

Food processing equipment helps the food industry keep our food safe, from farm fresh to preserved and shelf stable. Whether you eat processed foods or appreciate how much they have changed how we think about food these days, food processing equipment plays an important role in our lives.

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Created on Aug 4th 2019 19:38. Viewed 425 times.

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