Food Engineering Reviews最新文献

This comprehensive study delves into advanced dehydration techniques and processing technologies in the realm of coffee manufacturing. It offers a comparative analysis of these techniques, specifically focusing on green coffee beans and instant coffee production. The examination encompasses the pivotal steps of grading, roasting, grinding, extraction, and dehydration, which form the core of the coffee manufacturing process. In the context of instant coffee production, two primary dehydration methods, spray-drying and freeze-drying, are scrutinized for their roles in water removal from coffee extracts and slurries and their impact on final product quality and efficiency. This study emphasizes the significance of dehydration processes as the linchpin of manufacturing optimization, considering their prominence in coffee production plants. Furthermore, the research extends to investigate the diverse extraction techniques, additional processes, and critical technologies, such as agglomeration, used in the production of coffee instant powder. Quality control, life cycle analysis, and assurance are scrutinized to provide insights into the overall sustainability of coffee manufacturing. The examination also explores the environmental impact, byproducts, and nuanced properties of coffee powder across different production systems. In essence, this review serves as a valuable resource for industry professionals, researchers, and coffee enthusiasts, offering a holistic understanding of advanced coffee dehydration techniques and their impact on quality, efficiency, and sustainability in the context of both green coffee beans and instant coffee production.

Evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) has gained significant attention due to its high thermal efficiency and ability to harness solar energy more effectively as compared to flat plate solar collector. The present review analyzed the in-depth mechanism of analytical modeling of ETSC, different factors influencing the performance, and applications in drying of Agri-commodities. Evacuated tubes with and without heat pipes are used for air heating purposes. ETSC with tracking and non-tracking, selective coating techniques, and for reducing heat loss during drying operations are reported. The system performance is greatly influenced by the ETSC design, absorber coating, heat transfer fluid, mass flow rate of working fluid, inclination or tilt angle, collector size, and distance between tubes. Moreover, Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of the various ETSC-based drying systems were compiled to investigate their flow patterns, heat transfer characteristics, and overall system performance. This literature inherently provides the way for the development of evacuated tube-based innovative and sustainable solar dryers in small and industrial scale.

Drying is a crucial unit operation within the functional foods and biopharmaceutical industries, acting as a fundamental preservation technique and a mechanism to maintain these products' bioactive components and nutritional values. The heat-sensitive bioactive components, which carry critical quality attributes, necessitate a meticulous selection of drying methods and conditions backed by robust research. In this review, we investigate challenges associated with drying these heat-sensitive materials and examine the impact of various drying methods. Our thorough research extensively covers ten notable drying methods: heat pump drying, freeze-drying, spray drying, vacuum drying, fluidized bed drying, superheated steam drying, infrared drying, microwave drying, osmotic drying, vacuum drying, and supercritical fluid drying. Each method is tailored to address the requirements of specific functional foods and biopharmaceuticals and provides a comprehensive account of each technique's inherent advantages and potential limitations. Further, the review ventures into the exploration of combined hybrid drying techniques and smart drying technologies with industry 4.0 tools such as automation, AI, machine learning, IoT, and cyber-physical systems. These innovative methods are designed to enhance product performance and elevate the quality of the final product in the drying of functional foods and biopharmaceuticals. Through a thorough survey of the drying landscape, this review illuminates the intricacies of these operations and underscores their pivotal role in functional foods and biopharmaceutical production.

Traditional fats, used in the formulation of many high-consumption foods are characterized by the presence of a fat crystal network mainly made of saturated fatty acids (SFA). Despite conferring food unique structural and sensory properties, the lipidic composition of traditional fats has raised increasing concerns associated with the spread of diet-related non-communicable diseases. Fat substitution with alternatives characterized by a more equilibrated lipid composition is thus unanimously considered a priority to increase the food nutritional profile and sustainability. In this context, the structuring of liquid oils into semi-solid materials with a composition rich in unsaturated fatty acids but structural properties analogous to that of traditional SFA-rich fats is particularly promising. To this aim, a plethora of structuring molecules has been proposed to date. Among them, saturated monoglycerides (MGs) have the peculiar ability to self-assemble into several different hierarchical structures, which can be exploited to prepare fat alternatives. Depending on system composition and environmental conditions, MG-based hydrogels, hydro-foams, oleogels, oleo-foam and structured emulsions can be obtained. This review describes the structural properties of these MG-based fat alternatives, along with the formulation and processing factors affecting MG self-assembly capacity. An approach for the design of food using these promising structures is then presented along with a discussion of their potential functionalities.

Poor thermal stability of packaging materials represents a significant obstacle impeding their applications as alternatives to non-biodegradable plastics in the food packaging sector. The thermal stability of biopolymeric films is essential for upholding their structural integrity and preventing degradation at different temperatures during processing, transportation, and storage, thereby safeguarding the quality and safety of packaged food items. A deeper understanding of the interplay between material composition, processing conditions, and thermal behavior will foster the development of stable edible films capable of withstanding elevated temperatures while maintaining their structural integrity and functional attributes. This review provides an overview of various thermal analysis techniques available for analyzing biodegradable edible films (viz. Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis, and Thermomechanical Analysis), as well as explores the interrelation between film properties and thermal stability such as film crystallinity, morphological attributes, chemical arrangement, nano-reinforcements and interaction with other ingredients. Furthermore, the thermal behaviour of biopolymers and the recent advancements aimed at engineering desirable thermal behaviour into edible films are extensively discussed. The present study contributes to the current knowledge base and serves as a valuable resource for researchers in the field of food packaging and material science.

Sustainable food practices within the food industry are pertinent to allow efficient food supply while not negatively impacting the environment. Alternative proteins have gained the attention of the food industry and consumers. To provide safe novel food products, these protein sources need to be assessed for potential allergen risk to ensure food safety and allow effective labelling to protect the consumer. In this review, the various detection assays applied to target potential allergens in novel and alternative foods are described together with their applications, mechanisms and limitations. Additionally, the use of non-thermal technologies to mitigate the reactivity of food allergens in these new products is explored. Non-thermal techniques including cold plasma, pulsed electric field, ultrasound and gamma irradiation are discussed. This review examines the potential mechanisms by which non-thermal technologies may reduce food allergenicity, primarily through alterations in protein epitopes that could affect antibody recognition. However, it is important to note that the understanding of the precise mechanisms and outcomes in allergen mitigation through these methods remains an area requiring further research.

With the increasing demand for aquatic products, the requirement for the safety detection of aquatic products is also increasing. In the past decade, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) have become hot topics in many fields due to their special physical and chemical properties. With their excellent conductivity, a variety of electrochemical sensors have been developed in the fields of biology, food and chemistry. However, the unique optical properties of GO/r-GO have not yet been widely utilized. With the deepening of research, the fluorescence quenching performance of GO/r-GO has been proven to have excellent potential for building fluorescent sensors, and GO/r-GO fluorescent sensors have thus become an inevitable trend in sensor development. This review summarizes the main preparation methods of GO/r-GO and the principles of GO/r-GO fluorescent sensors comprehensively. Additionally, recent advances in utilizing GO/r-GO fluorescent sensors to detect aquatic food are discussed, including the application for the detection of harmful chemicals, microorganisms, and endogenous substances in aquatic products, such as pesticides, antibiotics and heavy metals. It is hoped that this review will help accelerate the progress in the field of analysis, and promote the establishment of an aquatic food supervision system.

Soluble solids content (SSC) is an essential internal quality attribute of fruits that directly affects consumers’ degree of satisfaction. The traditional determination method, the refractometer, is characterized by inherent drawbacks of destructiveness, labor intensiveness, and low efficiency. Visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging (HSI) can be promising alternative approaches as being non-destructive, accurate, and rapid and have attracted extensive attention. This review endeavors to elucidate the advantages and limitations of applying VIS/NIR and HSI techniques in determining fruit SSC, drawing upon a comprehensive analysis of the pertinent literature. The latest progress of instrument configuration is described, and an outline for crucial steps involved in data acquisition and analysis is presented to provide empirical support for future research. Notably, the main internal and external factors that interfere with the model performance in complex application scenarios are comprehensively discussed for the first time. Additionally, the advances in strategies devised to compensate for these interference are summarized. To facilitate the transition of VIS/NIR and HSI techniques for fruit SSC into practical use, future research activities should be focused on addressing the challenges in big data acquisition, sample representativeness, feature fusion, model verification and interpretation, and model improvement.

Food dehydration, the process of reducing moisture in food to improve shelf life, is one of the oldest food preservation methods used by the food processing industry. During dehydration, the porous structure within foods undergoes various alterations, significantly impacting both process efficiency and consumer acceptance. The types of pores, namely, open pores, characterized by connectivity to the external surface of the food, and closed pores, which lack external surface access, distinctly influence the dehydration and rehydration kinetics, stability of the dehydrated product, and textural properties of foods, such as hardness, strength, crispness, and chewiness. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the characteristics of open and closed pores and examine their distinct impacts on food attributes. It seeks to explore the mechanisms underlying pore formation and assess the effects of varied dehydration technologies on pore structure. It finally evaluates the applicable measurement methodologies and identifies the challenges and opportunities of measuring pores within the food industry. Furthermore, this study examined the utility of artificial intelligence in porosity modeling and discussed the potential for encapsulating functional compounds within pores. Overall, this comprehensive review provides valuable insights into the distinct characteristics and implications of open and closed pores on dehydrated food products.

The sugar industry plays a crucial role in numerous economies worldwide, and projections indicate an increase in sugar demand in the coming years. Sugar manufacturing is a complex and highly energy-demanding process, encompassing various sub-processes, including the milling of sugarcane, clarification of raw cane juice, evaporation of syrup, crystallization of syrup, and centrifugation. The crystallization process involves extracting solid sucrose crystals from a supersaturated solution, with supersaturation being a crucial variable. Most previous review articles have focused on specific topics of the crystallization process in the sugar industry. This review aims to provide a broader and updated discussion. It explores various aspects, such as the fundamentals of the process in the sugar industry, a technological description of the three-stage operation, and an analysis of the role of supersaturation. The review examines the main process variables, the most commonly used industrial sensors, and their limitations. Additionally, it discusses the main proposals and approaches found in the literature related to monitoring, modeling, and control of crystallization in the sugar industry. The article identifies and analyzes some limitations present in the literature, including the selection of instruments for industrial monitoring, confusing references to supersaturation sensors, and the need for proper error analysis in the design of process-focused estimators. In particular, there is an emphasis on including information about error bounds for supersaturation estimators.