The pomegranate processing technologies, developed by the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) of India, received wide attention at the recent “World Pomegranate Fair” held in Kabul, Afghanistan. The company demonstrated its simple but easyto-operate tool for removing pomegranate arils (juicy seeds). For removal of arils, the fruit has to be broken open by hand, which is difficult, or cut with a blade, which may damage the arils. The hand-tool developed by CIPHET makes it very easy to remove the arils from pomegranates.

Source: www.indianexpress.com

A research team from the United Kingdom claims to have developed a combined air cycle system for food heating and cooling, to meet the rapid and continuing expansion of the chilled and frozen food industry. Engineers at the Food Refrigeration and Processing Engineering Research Centre at the University of Bristol said that they are at present testing and optimizing air cycle refrigeration equipment for food processing that requires a linked need for the cooking and cooling of product.

Until now, it has been difficult to link the processes because the heat generated by direct expansion refrigeration systems is not high enough to be useful in cooking, said lead researcher Mr. Alan Foster. However, air cycle refrigeration generates large quantities of fairly high heat (above 230ºC), simultaneously producing air at very low temperatures (-100ºC), he claimed. Further, the very low temperatures of the combined air cycle system allow rapid cooling and freezing, potentially improving quality, and reducing weight loss, residence time and factory footprint for the process.

Mr. Foster says that the temperatures achieved equate to process temperatures of -64ºC in the cooling tunnel and 150ºC in the heating tunnel. The downside of the system is its lower energy efficiency. Mr. Foster says that this is compensated by benefits such as zero ozone depletion and global warming potential, and non-toxicity and non-inflammability. The system is also far less susceptible to leakage than vapour compression systems and is therefore more reliable.

Source: www.foodproductiondaily.com

MCD Technologies, the United States, says that a key feature of its concentration and dehydration technology is the ability to preserve a product’s beneficial properties, including its nutrition, colour, aroma and flavour through its gentle approach to drying. Its Refractance Window (RW) process involves a slurry of liquid product being applied evenly to the top surface of a continuous sheet of impermeable, transparent plastic, which floats on hot water. Infrared energy then passes from the water to the slurry at the speed of light.

Ms. Karin Bolland-Magoon, President of MCD Technologies, explains: “The infrared energy and conducted heat employed by RW drying deliver rapid drying at atmospheric pressure rather than under a vacuum, and also inhibits oxidation of the product due to the reduced surface area that results.” RW method can be used to dry a range of food and beverage products such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, cocoa mix, tea, coffee, meat, fish and poultry. The method is claimed to outscore conventional freeze and spray drying techniques also in terms of the net savings to the end user with regard to initial equipment cost and low environmental impact.

Source: www.beveragedaily.com

The difficulty in separating out the seeds from pomegranates disheartens many consumers. Now a Spanish invention enables this food to be deseeded automatically. Researchers from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias have developed a machine that automatically separates the pomegranate seeds from the rind and pith. The mechanism uses a computer vision system to distinguish and sort the different parts of this fruit.

The seeds arrive at the machine in a pile, mixed with the rest of the fruit, following a prior process of wholesale de-seeding. The material is placed on a conveyor platform with hoppers that organizes it into a queue before going on to the “inspection chamber” where two video cameras record each object going through. Images are processed in a computer with specially designed vision software that identifies what is seed from what is not (pith, rind, foreign matter), in addition to evaluating the quality of the seeds.

This information enables the fruit material to be put to one side in the “separation area”, which has four exits. When the system detects that an active skin is passing through, a “blast” from an array of air projectors pushes it towards the first exit. By means of these “blasts” the rest of the material too is separated gradually. The seeds
that do not fulfil the quality requirements are eliminated through the second exit, prime quality seeds go through the third exit, and those of excellent quality go through the fourth exit.

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Ethanol is traditionally produced by fermenting sugars present in plants such as sugarcane and corn with yeast. The process requires the use of the most edible parts of the plants, which are rich in starch, and certain types of sugars called hexoses, resulting in the loss of a valuable source of nutrition. New technology that enables biowaste to be turned into bio-ethanol means that much needed energy can now be harvested without damaging the food chain. Denmark-based GEA Niro’s spray drying equipment are used in the process to dry yeast cream – ethanol’s byproduct
– decanted from the resulting slurry, into protein powder that can be used for animal feed.

The drying process is achieved in three steps:

• Using a falling film evaporator, yeast cream is concentrated at 60ºC into a slurry that has about 20 per cent total solids and 150 cP viscosity;
• The concentrate is then dried in a spray drying plant equipped for either rotary or nozzle atomization, depending on the required properties of the final powder; and
• The resulting powder is transported to silos for immediate use or packed into bags for storage or distribution.

A Niro falling film evaporation plant operating at low pressure and using thermal or mechanical recompression of vapour has low specific energy consumption. Where there are no particular property demands for the dried yeast cream powders, spray drying using rotary atomization could be used. The powder produced using this method will have a bulk density of approximately 500 kg/m3 and an average particle size of 100 µm, making it suitable for mixing with animal feedstock. For more complex powder properties, a spray dryer with nozzle atomization may be employed.

Source: www.mhwmagazine.co.uk

Frequent stop and start operations, exposure to salt water and heavy loads are just a few of the challenges that motorized drums have to undergo at cheese manufacturing plants. With a demand to increase the processing from 90,000 to 160,000 cheese blocks per week, the Swiss cheese maker Fromco SA decided to introduce automation technology into cheese processing. The automation specialists, Patric Concept SA, designed and implemented a tailor-made conveyor system that automated the ageing process.

With each cheese weighing 35 kg, the load on the drum motors driving the conveyor system is large, not to mention the wear demands of constant stops/starts within the process (40,000 per motor per week). The drum motors are exposed daily to corrosive salt water and high pressure cleaning. These considerations led Fromco to opt for Interroll’s drum motors for their durability and all-in-one hygienic sealed design.

With a diameter of 165 mm, the 165E drum motor has a high radial load that makes it especially suitable for handling the heavy cheeses along the flat sections of the conveyor line. After analysing performance requirements, the 0.75 kW version for conveyor speeds of 0.25, 0.32 and 0.4 m/s was found ideal. For transporting the cheeses down inclining and declining sections of the processing line, the TM220M drum motors provided a solution with an output of 2.2 kW at a conveyor speed of 0.32 m/s. A polymer covering, to promote friction, is a standard add-on to the motor’s stainless steel drum.

Source: www.mhwmagazine.co.uk