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Practical Tips
For the Food Industry
By: Dr. Oren
Ben-Israel
The following
tips are presented as general ideas only. Before any implementation
of these tips, the reader has to verify their contents. The author
will not be responsible for any consequence due to the use of these tips.
Concentration
Dairy
Drying
Equipment
Food
Additives
Frozen
Foods
Pastry
Powders
Preservation
Sweets
Concentration
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How
to minimize the loss of aroma during the concentration of liquids, like
juices? |
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Perform
"aroma recovery". For example, by trapping, at the very beginning
of the process, the vapor fraction which usually contains most of
the aromatic compounds. Afterwards, condensing that fraction
and restoring it to the concentrated liquid. |
Dairy
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How
to minimize the syneresis effect (separation into two phases) in yogurt
and other dairy products? |
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Add
low concentrations of thickening agents, like gelatin or alginates. |
Drying
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In
freeze-drying, what is preferred: fast freezing or slow freezing of the
product, prior to drying? |
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Slow
freezing. In order to improve the water sublimation, formation of
ice crystals will be beneficial. Slow freezing will increase the
formation of the ice crystals. |
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How
to prevent foaming of freeze-dried liquids, which may lead to the termination
of the freeze-drying process? |
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Reduce
the heating temperature.
Although it
will reduce the drying rate, it may prevent the formation of foam. |
Equipment
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What
are the major reasons for the acceleration of the development of small
halls in the plates of industrial heat exchangers? |
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Thermal shocks.
- Cleaning
with improper detergents. |
Food
Additives
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Where
can I find a list of chemicals permitted for use as food additives in the
USA? |
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Such
a list, of thousands of chemicals, can be found in the FDA web site at:
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/eafus.html. |
Frozen
Foods
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How
to minimize the occurrence of ice crystals during freezing of food products? |
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Increase the freezing rate.
- Add cryoprotectors,
like sugars, especially in the case of fruit freezing. |
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How
to minimize the enzymatic deterioration of frozen vegetables? |
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Prior
to freezing, immerse the vegetables in boiling water for a few seconds. |
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What
is preferable: to freeze food products before packaging, or to pack the
product and then to freeze it? |
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There
is no unequivocal answer.
If the freezing
rate and prevention of the appearance of ice crystals on the interior of
the package are important, freezing the product before packaging will be
better. If reducing the drying and the weight loss of the product
during freezing is important, then freezing the product in it's package
will be better. |
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How
to minimize the appearance of ice crystals in the interior of packages
of frozen foods which are being frozen after packaging? |
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Use
a shrinkable packing which is attached to the product.
Vacuum packaging
may also be beneficial. |
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How
to prevent spongy texture in frozen fish? |
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The
spongy texture usually derives from the occurrence of air bubbles.
Vacuum de-aeration prior to freezing may solve this problem. |
Pastry
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How
to prevent the formation of hard shell accompanied by insufficient baked
interior, in bread and other bakery products? |
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In
order to minimize this phenomenon, called "Case Hardening", it is suggested
to increase the humidity during the baking process. For example,
by means of injection of steam into the oven. Making grooves in the
product, prior to baking, may also minimize this phenomenon, by expediting
the baking process. |
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How
to minimize the loss of the flavorings during the storage or baking of
cake mixes and muffin mixes? |
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Mix
the flavorings with melted dehydrogenated fat, prior the addition of the
other ingredients. That will protect the flavorings and will minimize
their evaporation. |
Powders
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How
to increase the shelf life of soup mixes? |
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In
the production of the soup mix, use low moisture corn starch, instead of
the regular one. Low moisture corn starch contains about 4-7% moisture,
in comparison to regular corn starch, which may contain up to 14% moisture,
and even more. |
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How
to increase the solubility of powders, like milk powder, coffee, cocoa,
instant drinks, etc.? |
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Produce
powders which are composed of bigger granules. This may improve the
reconstitution. Powder with large granules may be produced by slightly
wetting the original powder and re-drying it with spray dryer. |
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How
to prevent stickiness of powders which are produced by spray-drying? |
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Reduce
the temperature and increase the drying time. Furthermore, addition
of polysaccharides may also reduce the stickiness.
Increasing
the drying time may demand larger sized spray dryer. |
Preservation
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How
to minimize corrosion effects in cans of fruit conserves? |
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Sometimes,
the corrosion is caused due to the discharge of air (oxygen) from the fruit,
after the sealing of the can. Thus, de-aeration of the product, prior
to packaging, may minimize the problem. |
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How
to achieve homogeneous distribution of salt, in dry salting of fishes and
meats? |
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Use
rough texture salt.
Due to the
slowing down of the process, longer salting time will be desired. |
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How
to reduce effectively the water activity (aw) of food products? |
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Add
low molecular weight sugars.
The important
parameter is the molar concentration of the added sugar: the lower the
molecular weight of the sugar, the higher is the water activity decrease.
For example:
addition of certain quantity of glucose will be more effective than addition
of the same quantity of sucrose. |
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How
to reduce the enzymatic browning and microbial activity in dried fruits
and vegetables? |
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Add
bisulfite salts (HSO3-), such as sodium bisulfite and potassium
bisulfite. |
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How
to increase the anti-microbial effectiveness of preservatives like benzoic
acid, propionic acid, sorbic acid and sulfites? |
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Lower
the pH.
Benzoic acid
is mostly effective in pH lower than 4.0;
propionic
acid - pH lower than 5.0;
sorbic acid
- pH lower than 6.5;
sulfites -
pH lower than 4.5.
For high pH
values (7.0 and above), preservatives like parabens will be effective. |
Sweets
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How
to reduce the occurrence of cocoa butter crystals in chocolate ("blooming")? |
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Increase
the amount of lecithin, which serves as an emulsifier. |
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How
to minimize the problem of stickiness in candies (especially in hot climate
countries)? |
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Increase
the amount of sugar, i.e., to decrease the amount of water.
In that way,
the transition from the glassy state to the rubbery state will occur in
higher temperatures. |
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How
to minimize the sugar-crystallization effect in jellies, syrups and
similar products? |
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Substitute
some of the sucrose with invert-sugar (hydrolyzed sucrose). |
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