THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY
Food Processing
↪ set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into
finished and semi-finished products.
Development of Food Processing and Technology
✜ 1810: development of the canning process by NIcolas Appert
✜ 1864: Louis Pasteur research
↪ Spoilage of wine and his description of how to avoid
spoilage
↪ Production of alcohol, vinegar, wines, beer, and souring of
milk
Pasteurisation - the process of treating milk to destroy
disease producing organisms
Degrees of Processing
1. MInimally processed food
↪ Washing, peeling, slicing, juicing, and removing inedible
parts.. Also freezing, drying and fermenting
↪ To prolong shelf life -> may have preservatives added, or
may be sealed in a sterile packaging
2. Processed foods ingredients
↪ Includes flours, oils, fats, sugars, sweeteners, starches, and
other ingredients
↪ Rarely eaten alone
↪ Typically used in cooking or in manufacturing highly
processed foods
↪ Starting materials such as grains and oil seeds may be
milled, refined, crushed or exposed to chemicals. These
techniques radically change the nature of the original raw
materials
↪ Tend to be nutrient-poor (high in calories)
3. Highly Processed Foods
↪ Combinations of unprocessed food, minimally processed
food and processed food ingredients
↪ Designed with consumer convenience in mind
↪ Made using mixing, baking, frying, curing, smoking, and
the addition of vitamins and minerals
Why are foods processed?
1. Preservation
Salting meats, fermenting dairy, canning, pasteurizing milk
✜ Historically, the most important reason to process or
prepare foods is to make them last longer before spoiling
✜ The competition by Napoleon Bonaparte for France’s
armies prompted the discovery of safe canning practices by
Nicolas Appert
✜ Louis Pasteur would later discover pasteurization
2. Food Safety
Heating, refrigerating, freezing, fermenting, drying, salting
3. Variety
Modifying, flavor, texture, aroma, color, form
4. Convenience
Convenience food, fast food
5. Nutrition
Salt with iodine, milk with vitamin d, grain products with folic acid
iron, B vitamins
Fortification
● Enrichment — the restoration of some nutrients that are
lost during processing
● Fortification — adding certain nutrients above the levels
that naturally occur in a food
Preserving Nutrients
Freezing or canning can preserve levels of certain
nutrients
Factors to determine whether the fresh, frozen or canned
version of a food is the most nutritious:
– when was harvested?
– how long had been stored?
– how it will be prepared?
The Food Processing Industry Personnel/Staff, Duties and
Responsibilities
1. Food Production Worker
- Receiving food items and ensuring appropriate storage
- Operating equipments
- Performing preventive and general maintenance
- Performing food production activities
2. Packaging Staff/Packer
- Assembling containers and packaging
- Inspecting containers
- Sealing and labeling
- Stacking and arranging
- Performing sterilization of containers
- Ensuring appropriate storage temperature
3. Quality Control Staff
- Inspecting, testing or measuring raw materials
- Accepting or rejecting raw mats
- Reporting inspections and test data
- Recommending adjustments to the assembly or
production process
Professional Work Habits of a Food Processing Worker
↪ produce outputs that meet industry standards
↪ meet production targets
↪ ensure outputs are produced on schedule
Knowledge and Skills Needed for Food Processing
● Food science, food chemistry, microbiology, food processing,
safety/quality assurance, good manufacturing practices and
nutrition.
● Analysis of raw and cooked/manufactured foods for composition,
quality and safety.
● Food ingredients, their uses in food preparations and food
production on a large scale.
● Product specifications and food product development.
● Sensory evaluation and acceptability.
● Industrial practices, systems control, distribution channels,
consumer purchase patterns.
● Food packaging and labeling.
● Ability to use information technology to support product design.
● Skills in food preparation and cooking.
● Ability to design, analyse, follow a design brief and adapt recipes.
Food as Material
● Seasonal availability of food stuffs
● Nature and properties of food
● Nutritional content and its analysis
● Cost of food stuff
● Influence of chemical pesticides, time, moisture, temperature and
additives
● Assessment of the quality of raw foods and ingredients for quality
production of food
● Food Hygiene and Food Safety
● Knowledge of Information Technology for contemporary food
production
Food Product Development
● Knowledge of food preparation and cooking skills for large scale
food production
● Knowledge of product specifications, and testing it
● Observing and measuring Quality Control as per specifications
● Assessment by sensory methods [by testing and tasting produced
foods]
● Industrial practices and manufacturing systems and their control
● Labelling and packaging of marketable product
● Hazard Analysis and Critical Control point. {HACCP}
Recipe Development
● Expertise in cooking
● Knowledge of nature and properties of food
● Uses of ingredients, measuring and weighing them accurately
● Designing, analysing and adapting a basic recipe
● Food handling skills
● Food production following hygiene and safety norms
● Handling tools and equipment accurately
● Innovations in product design and preparation according to
consumer perceptions
● Use of Information Technology for contemporary production
The Food Processing Facility - where food for human consumption is:
manufactured, packaged, labeled, and stored
