Food engineering has become increasingly important in the food industry over the years, as food engineers play a key role in developing new food products and improved manufacturing processes. While other textbooks have covered some aspects of this emerging field, this is the first applications-oriented handbook to cover food engineering processes and manufacturing techniques.
A major portion of Handbook of Food Engineering Practice is devoted to defining and explaining essential food operations such as pumping systems, food preservation, and sterilization, as well as freezing and drying. Membranes and evaporator systems and packaging materials and their properties are examined as well. The handbook provides information on how to design accelerated storage studies and determine the temperature tolerance of foods, both of which are important in predicting shelf life. The book also examines the importance of physical and rheological properties of foods, with a special look at the rheology of dough and the design of processing systems for the manufacture of dough.
The final third of the book provides useful supporting material that applies to all of the previously discussed unit operations, including cost/profit analysis methods, simulation procedures, sanitary guidelines, and process controller design. The book also includes a survey of food chemistry, a critical area of science for food engineers.