Technology Of Specific Products

🍎 Course Summary: Technology of Specific Products

This course provides a detailed, commodity-based examination of the industrial-scale processing technologies used to convert raw agricultural materials into finished food products. It applies fundamental principles from food science and food engineering (such as heat transfer, microbiology, and unit operations) to specific food sectors.

Course Goals

The primary goal is for students to understand the entire value chain of major food commodities—from raw material quality assessment through processing, preservation, packaging, and quality control—to meet safety and consumer standards.

Key Thematic Areas

The course is structured around major product groups, with each section covering raw material characteristics, unit operations specific to that product, preservation techniques, and quality challenges.

1. Dairy Technology 🥛

  • Focus: Milk collection, standardization, pasteurization (HTST, UHT), and homogenization.

  • Products: Fluid milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and butter.

  • Challenge: Controlling microbial contaminants (especially Listeria and thermodurics) and managing phase changes (e.g., milk gelation for cheese/yogurt).

2. Cereal and Baking Technology 🍞

  • Focus: Grain structure, milling processes (wheat, rice), and starch/gluten functionality.

  • Products: Flour, bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, and extruded snacks.

  • Challenge: Controlling moisture content, managing dough rheology, and ensuring product texture and shelf stability.

3. Meat and Poultry Technology 🍗

  • Focus: Muscle structure, rigor mortis, stunning/slaughter processes, and carcass breakdown.

  • Products: Fresh cuts, processed meats (sausage, ham), and restructured products.

  • Challenge: Maintaining cold chain integrity, microbial safety (e.g., Salmonella, $\text{E}$. coli), curing chemistry, and color stability (myoglobin control).

4. Fruit and Vegetable Technology 🥕

  • Focus: Post-harvest physiology (respiration, senescence), pre-treatment (blanching).

  • Products: Juices, purees, canned vegetables, frozen produce, and minimally processed fresh cuts.

  • Challenge: Enzyme inactivation (to prevent browning/texture loss), thermal processing optimization, and minimizing nutrient degradation.

5. Fats, Oils, and Confectionery 🍫

  • Focus: Extraction, refining, hydrogenation, and interesterification processes.

  • Products: Vegetable oils, margarines, cocoa processing (bean to chocolate liquor), and compound coatings.

  • Challenge: Preventing oxidative rancidity, controlling crystallization (polymorphism), and managing flow properties (rheology).

Learning Methodology

The course emphasizes case studies and the quantitative application of engineering principles. Students will analyze process flow diagrams and critical control points (CCPs) for different processing lines.