Agro-product processing technology: principles and practice

Global food security is a challenging issue. Meeting the food and nutritional requirements of the world has become an issue for national policymakers and is of public concern. There is a need to enhance agricultural production, as well as, to reduce postharvest loss, improve the quality of processed products, and add value to products to make more quality food available. Agro-product processing technology plays a major role to reduce post-harvest losses, improve the quality of processed products, and add value to the products. It also generates employment and ultimately contributes to food security. Features: Covers a wide spectrum of agro-product processing technology Explains the principles and practices of agro-product processing technology with many worked examples to quickly teach the basic principles through examples Contains examples from different operations on current problems to show the wide applications of the principles of agro-product technology Includes process control and emerging technologies in agro-product processing such as energy and exergy analysis, neural network modeling, and CFD modeling This book deals with physical and thermal properties, cleaning and sorting, drying and storage, parboiling and milling, by-product utilization, heating and cooling, refrigerated cooling, and cold storage. The most unique feature of this book is the machine vision for grading fruits, process control and materials handling, and emerging technologies such as neural network, finite element, CFD, and genetic algorithm.

ContentsForeword--Preface--Author--Chapter 1 Introduction--1.1 Introduction--1.2 Impotence of Postharvest Technology--1.3 Importance of Postharvest Losses--1.4 Postharvest Technology--References--Chapter 2 Physical, Thermal, and Chemical Properties of Food and Biological Materials--2.1 Introduction--2.2 Physical Properties--2.2.1 Physical Dimensions--2.2.2 1000-Grain Weight--2.2.3 Bulk Density--2.2.4 Shrinkage--2.2.5 Friction--2.2.5.1 Angle of Internal Friction and Angle of Repose--2.2.5.2 Coefficient of Friction--2.3 Thermal Properties--2.3.1 Specific Heat--2.3.2 Thermal Conductivity--2.3.2.1 Theory--2.3.2.2 Apparatus and Measurement--2.3.3 Latent Heat of Vaporization--2.3.3.1 Determination of Latent Heat of Vaporization--2.3.4 Heat Transfer Coefficient of Product Bed--2.3.4.1 Dimensional Analysis--2.3.4.2 Comparison of Theory and Experiment--2.3.4.3 Theory--2.3.4.4 Determination of Volumetric Heat Transfer Coefficient--2.4 Chemical Properties--2.4.1 Starch--2.4.2 Protein--2.4.3 Fat--2.4.4 Vitamin--Key to Symbols--Exercises--References--Chapter 3 Cleaning, Grading, and Sorting--3.1 Grade Factor--3.2 Washing--3.3 Sorting Fruits and Vegetables--3.4 Sorting Grain--3.5 Spiral Separat…