Lactic Acid Fermentation

 To thrive, every organism need to extract energy from an energy source. Bacteria and yeasts use fermentation process as their energy source. Fermentation is a way of getting energy, just like respiration process which is used by plants and animals. Lactic acid fermentation is a type in which lactic acid is formed as a result of the fermentation process by lactic acid bacteria.

  1. What is Lactic Acid Fermentation

Lactic acid bacteria perform an essential role in the preservation and production of many varieties of foods. It has got various applications in food, pharma, and allied industries due to its peculiar flavour and aroma. It is also inexpensive, and needs little or no heat in the application, making them fuel-efficient as well.

The production of lactic acid from hexoses ( 6 Carbon sugar) is a peculiar metabolic activity, also named ‘fermentation’, of LAB (Lactic Acid Bacteria) such as Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Streptococcus spp. For these reasons, fermentative bacteria are commonly employed in the food industry as starter cultures for the industrial processing of fermented dairy, meat, cereal, and vegetable products.

On the other hand, lactic acid can be also used as a food additive in the industry of edible products without the presence of LAB fermentation. This option can be extremely useful in various ambits. Both the homofermentative and the heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria are generally fastidious on artificial media but they grow readily in most food substrates and lower the pH rapidly to a point where other competing organisms can not survive.

  1. Bio-preservation of Foods using Lactic Acid Fermentation

Bio-preservation refers to extended storage life and enhanced safety of foods using their natural or controlled microflora and (or) their antibacterial products.

It may consist of:

  • adding bacterial strains that grow rapidly and (or) produce antagonistic substances.
  • adding purified antagonistic substances
  • adding the fermentation liquor or concentrate from an antagonistic organism
  • adding mesophilic LAB as a ‘fail-safe’ protection against temperature abuse.

LAB produces lactic acid or lactic and acetic acids, and they may produce other inhibitory substances such as diacetyl, hydrogen peroxide, reuterin (b-hydroxypropionaldehyde), and bacteriocins.

Lactic acid bacteria have a major potential for use in biopreservation because they are safe to consume and during storage, they naturally dominate the microflora of many foods. In milk, brined vegetables, many cereal products and meats with added carbohydrates, the growth of lactic acid bacteria produces a new food product. In raw meats and fish that are chill stored under vacuum or in an environment with elevated carbon dioxide concentration, the lactic acid bacteria become the dominant population and preserve the meat with a ‘hidden’ fermentation. The same applies to processed meats provided that the lactic acid bacteria survive the heat treatment or are inoculated onto the product after heat treatment.

  1. Industrial Production of Lactic Acid

Lactic acid also has a prime position due to its versatile industrial applications in food, pharmaceutical, textile, leather, and other chemical industries. Lactic acid is widely used in food-related applications but recently it has gained many other industrial applications like biodegradable plastic production. Food and food-related applications account for approximately 85% of the demand for lactic acid, whereas non-food industrial applications account for only 15% of the demand.

Lactic acid was first isolated from sour milk by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1780 and was first commercially produced in 1881 by CE Avery in Littleton, MA, USA. Pasteur, Lister, and Delbrueck identified lactic acid as a microbial metabolite. The production demand for lactic acid has been increased over years due to due to its high potential of application in a wide range of fields.

Lactic acid has been mainly used for food and food-related applications. It is due to the mild acidic taste of lactic acid. In addition, lactic acid is non-volatile, odourless, and classified as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) for use as a general-purpose food additive. Therefore, many industries choose lactic acid as a safe flavour and preservative in food. Lactic acid also has been utilized in the cosmetic industry such as in the manufacture of hygiene and aesthetic products due to its moisturizing, antimicrobial, and rejuvenating effects on the skin, as well as of oral hygiene products.

The other promising application of lactic acid lies in its polymer, the poly-lactic acid (PLA). It offers tremendous advantages like biodegradability, thermos-plasticity, high strength, etc. PLA is considered as an environment-friendly alternative to substitute plastics derived from petrochemicals. PLA can be applied in medical applications for filling the gaps in bones, producing sutures (stitching material), and joining membranes or thin skins in humans.

  • Lactic Acid Fermentation Process

Lactic acid can be produced by the fermentation of sugars or sugar-containing hydrolyzates or the single-step conversion of starchy or cellulosic wastes by direct conversion using amylolytic lactic acid-producing microorganisms or by the simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation with concomitant addition of saccharifying enzymes and inoculum together. There are different processes for the biotechnological production of lactic acid. Generally, hydrolyzate is used instead of refined sugars which can be utilized for submerged fermentation or solid-state fermentation.

  1. Future of Lactic Acid Fermentation

Biodegradable plastic i.e., polylactic acid, can replace synthetic polymers to avoid environmental pollution. So lactic acid production must be economic and environmental friendly with the utilization of renewable biomass. The production of lactic acid from fossil fuels is now widely accepted as unsustainable due to depleting resources and the accumulation of environmentally hazardous chemicals. Even though fermentation can replace the chemical synthesis, the cost of production must reduce for the bulk production of lactic acid for the biodegradable plastic. High energy consumption and cost in raw material pre-treatment can be reduced by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. This process helps to increase the yield of lactic acid and increase productivity.

The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of lignocellulosic and starchy materials have its advantages over separate hydrolysis and fermentation. Consumable sugars like glucose released by cellulase or amylolytic enzyme are simultaneously converted to the end product by the microorganism. Glucose inhibition on the enzyme is therefore minimized. Many of the lactic acid bacteria are mesophilic and fermentation can carry out at the optimum temperature of their growth. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation offer the controlled release of sugar at the optimum growth temperature. The operating temperature of the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation can thus be brought to the level close to the optimum of the cellulase enzyme by using thermotolerant organisms for the efficiency of the whole process.

  1. Reference

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234703/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00399508

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7566098/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0734975007000961

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0734975008001067

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0740002012001943

https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?pid=S071734582004000200008&script=sci_arttext&tlng=e

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318094535_Lactic_Acid_in_the_Food_Industry

https://medcraveonline.com/JBMOA/lactic-acid-bacteria-their-applications-in-foods.html

Protein Functionalization

 Proteins are the engines of a living cell. Within and around cells they perform a magnificently diverse set of functions. They do most of the work in cells and are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. Besides providing structure and stability, proteins are involved in cell signalling, catalysing reactions, storage & transport, and are therefore extensively studied. Over the years, tools have become available for researchers to reveal structure and function relationships, as well as localization and their interactions with other proteins.

Nature routinely causes modifications of proteins in specific sites, enabling a dramatic increase in functional diversity.  The evolution of living beings is based on this functional diversity. The increase in research and technologies are leading humans to a state wherein it is possible to manipulate and add functional properties to specific proteins. However, modifying such chemically and structurally rich biopolymers without perturbing their function remains an open challenge.

  1. Selective Chemical Protein Modification

Chemical modification of proteins is an important tool for probing natural systems, creating therapeutic conjugates, and generating novel protein constructs. Site-selective reactions require exquisite control over both chemical and regioselectivity (regioselectivity occurs in chemical reactions where one reaction site is preferred over another), under ambient, aqueous conditions. There are now various methods for achieving selective modification of both natural and unnatural amino acids—each with merits and limitations.

Potential transformations, if they are to be relevant, are moulded by the need for biologically ambient conditions (that is, <37 °C, pH 6–8, aqueous solvent) so as not to disrupt protein architecture and/or function. Ideally, this should proceed with the near-total conversion to generate homogenous constructs.

  1. Constrains of Protein Functionalization

While many past examples of so-called ‘bioconjugation’ exist, those that teach a strong strategic lesson are rarer. The rigour of the chemical approach (including proper characterization) has been lacking—supplanted perhaps by a pragmatic desire for a useful product. In an era now hungry for precise molecular knowledge of protein function, historical examples of precise protein chemistry become vital.

Although many strategies exist to label proteins specifically, these random modifications can adversely block enzymatic active sites and binding pockets or alter the protein’s 3D structure, leading to a decrease in or complete destruction or masking of activity. Despite these challenges, early pioneering work utilizing specific installation of functional groups onto antibodies has revolutionized biology, enabling the foundational advances making up immunohistochemistry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs).

  1. Strategies of Functionalization

Regardless of the functionalization strategy, careful consideration must be paid to the reaction conditions for protein modification. Due to the fragility and massive size of most full-length proteins, the chemistries employed must occur under mild, aqueous conditions and proceed relatively rapidly on substrates at very low-molar concentrations. Owing to the diversity and arrangement of amino acid residues within each species, the protein targets display a diverse array of chemical functionalities with varying physicochemical parameters.

Targeting a specific functional group from the many that may be available on the protein’s surface, let alone a single moiety on a specific residue among many near-identical copies, is a tall order. To increase the specificity of these labelling reactions, three broad strategies have emerged:

  1. Utilize reactive small-molecule chemical reagents to modify endogenous proteins.
  2. Harness or hijack protein translational processes for direct labelling.
  3. Utilize enzymes for co- or post-translational modification of proteins.

Small-molecule-based labelling strategies exploit differences in physicochemical characteristics (redox potential, nucleophilicity, acid dissociation constant, etc.) of a given sidechain to gain chemo selectivity.

  1. Protein Functionalization in Food 

During extraction and food processing, proteins can be modified in multiple ways. Physical modifications (for example thermal treatment) and chemical modifications (for example ingredient interactions) can not only influence each other but also significantly affect the structural properties and functionality of proteins.

To obtain pure proteins or to design food products that contain (added) proteins, it is necessary to separate the desired protein from unwanted proteins and non-protein components present in the starting material. With variations that depend on the protein raw material, the process of producing bifunctional protein hydrolysates and peptides from food proteins typically involves extracting crude proteins from the protein source using aqueous or organic solvents and centrifuging the extract to further purify and separate the isolated proteins from unwanted and often insoluble non-protein materials.

Further purification steps may include dialyzing the supernatant of the protein extract against distilled water to remove residual salt and precipitate salt-soluble contaminants or treating the extract with dilute acid to initiate precipitation of the protein of interest (or that of the impure sediment) while leaving the impurities (or the desired protein) in solution. The proteins obtained from this kind of extraction and precipitation process are referred to as protein isolates and concentrates and could undergo additional purification based on their size, affinities for certain ligands, hydrophobicity, and ionic properties to obtain a purer, more homogeneous protein product.

  1. Sources of Food Proteins
    • Conventional
      • Plants: Food proteins and their component bioactive peptides have been isolated from a variety of plant foods. The wide distribution and heterogeneity of the plant protein sources not only demonstrate the structural diversity, abundance, and diverse origins of plant food proteins but also the enormous potential for isolating novel peptides with various important bioactive properties from these plant protein sources.
      • Animals: Animal proteins are an important and often essential component of various food products where their physicochemical and biological characteristics serve to enhance the nutritional, organoleptic, and even health-promoting properties of those foods.

The biological properties of protein hydrolysates and peptides of animal origin have also contributed to their use in the food industry for the formulation of medical foods designed to manage food allergies and control conditions such as cystic fibrosis, liver disease, Crohn’s disease, and phenylketonuria. Bioactive hydrolysates and peptides have been derived from a myriad of diverse animal and marine protein sources and protein by-products including salmon, oyster, milk, eggs, etc.

  • Novel
    • Insects: Although the heightened demand for high-quality food proteins and growing food security concerns in recent years have contributed to the increased use of proteins from insects for both food and feed, the consumption of insects, or entomophagy, is hardly a novel idea given that insects were a part of the diet of the evolutionary precursors of humans.

It is estimated that up to 2000 different insect species are edible and could be consumed at different stages of development, such as egg, larva, or pupa, with some of the most popular including locusts, crickets, caterpillars, bees, wasps, and ants. Insects are relatively rich in high-quality proteins with an essential amino acid content of 46–96%.

  • Algae: Factors contributing to the growing use of algae include their relative ease of cultivation even on non-arable lands, high sunlight utilization efficiency and capacity to be grown using seawater and on residual nutrients. Apart from their protein content, algae are known to contain substantial amounts of other nutrients such as B vitamins and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Proteins from algal sources have also been used to produce health-promoting bioactive peptides.

The growing demand for protein foods presents both opportunities and challenges for researchers and food product developers. For instance, in seeking to produce sustainable, more affordable but also nutritious protein-rich foods from insects, scientists must also confront the microbiological, chemical, physical, and allergenic risks inherent in using members of the class Insecta for food.

Although the use of emerging green technology for food processing continues to enjoy growing popularity, there is a need to increase efforts towards scaling up reported beneficial results. It is also important to understand the mechanisms by which the alteration of protein structure results in functional changes.

  1. References 
  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5740
  2. https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FS033912%2F1
  3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0608-y
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3995230/
  5. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/1698/169856422001/html/
  6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590238519303479
  7. https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Chair-groups/Agrotechnology-and-Food-Sciences/Food-Process-Engineering/Protein-functionalization.htm

 

 

 

 

Meat Analogues

 

Meat Analogues

A meat analog, (also known as a meat alternative, mock meat, fake meat, or imitation meat),  approximates sure aesthetic characteristics and chemical traits of the meat. The intake of vegetable proteins in meals products has been growing through the years because of animal diseases, global scarcity of animal protein, sturdy demand for wholesome and religious (halal) food, economic and most importantly environmental motives. A meat-based eating regimen calls for a notably more quantity of environmental sources according to calories compared to a vegetarian meal plan. That is  2 to 15 kg plant foods are needed to produce 1 kg of meat.  

Developing new meals merchandise that is attractive to the consumers is a task. But, it’s far even greater complex when those new foods are intended alternatively for products that can be enormously favored and common, like meat. These challenges turned into universal to develop new sustainable meat substitutes to reduce the terrible environmental effect of industrial-scale meat manufacturing for human consumption.

  1. Meat Proteins

Meat is considered as the highest quality protein source not only because of its dietary traits especially proteins however additionally due to its attractive taste. The role of meat proteins is two-fold. On one hand, meat proteins have all of the important amino acids carefully equivalent to the human body that, cause them to be exceptionally nutritious. Alternatively, the meat proteins substantially contribute to the growth and improvement of the food industry employing imparting particular functionalities to the product.

The essential protein functionalities in processed meats are gelation and associated homes (for example, meat particle binding and adhesion, emulsification, and water-conserving ability. Among the commercial proteins used in the food industry, gelatin has been regarded as both special and unique, serving multiple functions with a wide range of applications in various industries.

  1. Meat Analogues

Vegetarian foods occupy a larger than ever shelf space in today’s market due to the consumers’ growing health concerns and the associated environmental problems. Analogue may be defined as the compound that is structurally similar to another but differs slightly in composition. The beef analogue is a meal that is structurally just like meat but differs in composition.

Meat analogue, additionally called a meat replacement, mock meat, fake meat, or imitation meat, approximates the aesthetic characteristics (by and large texture, flavor, and look) and/or chemical characteristics of specific forms of meat. It can also confer with a meat-based, more healthy, and/or less expensive alternative to a selected meat product.

Generally, meat analogue is thought to intend a food crafted from non-meats ingredients, sometimes without dairy products, and are to be had in distinct forms. Normally, meat analogues are made from soy protein or gluten. 

  1. Function of Meat Analogue

The main function of meat analogues is to replace meat in the diet. The market for meat analog does not only includes vegetarians but also the non-vegetarian seeking to reduce their meat consumption for health or ethical reasons, and people following religious dietary laws, such as Kashrut, Halal, and Buddhist.

  1. Usage & Benefits

Some meat analogues are based on centuries-old recipes for wheat gluten, rice, mushrooms, legumes,

tempeh, or pressed-tofu, with flavoring delivered to make the finished product taste like chicken, red meat, lamb, ham, sausage, seafood, and many others. They can be used to reduce formulation costs due to the fact they may be less expensive than meat. Other attributes include the ability to maintain water and moisture at some point of cooking, reheating, freezing, and thawing makes them exceedingly appreciable.

Texturized vegetable proteins (TVP) are commonly used to offer the preferred pleasant, texture, binding capacity, and desired amount of chewiness, or to make a product less attackable or softer. There are numerous health benefits of meat analogue intake over the meat such as protection towards coronary heart sickness, decrease blood cholesterol, reduced risk of cancer, and increasing bone mass. Food scientists at the moment are developing meat alternatives that genuinely flavor like meat and feature the identical “mouth sense” of their nature-made counterparts. 

  1. Types of Food Used as Meat Analogue 
  • Soya meat /Textured vegetable proteins (TVP): Soya meat, or textured vegetable protein (TVP), is produced from soybeans primarily in Asian countries. The production method is somewhat laborious but, the end product has a fibrous consistency similar to that of meat. With different seasonings, a great variety of flavours can be achieved. Soya meat is extremely rich in protein with a protein content of over 50 percent, but the protein content drops when TVP is rehydrated.

 TVP has been developed in the USA and was introduced to the European market in the late 1960s, though with modest success. But it should be noted that the quality of TVP has improved for the last 40 years. TVP is produced using hot extrusion of defatted soy proteins, resulting in expanded high protein chunks, nuggets, strips, grains, and other shapes, where the denatured proteins give TVP textures similar to the meat. The fibrous, insoluble, porous TVP can soak up water or other liquids a multiple of its weight. Textured soy proteins (TSP) are processed to impart a structure and appearance that resembles meat, seafood, or poultry when hydrated. Soy protein products have become increasingly popular because of their low price, high nutritional quality, and versatile functional properties. Two important soybean protein products are soy protein concentrate (SPC) and soy protein isolate (SPI). 

  • Quorn–the mycoproteins: Quorn is the brand name for a line of foods made from mycoprotein. Quorn products take the form of faux chicken patties, nuggets, and cutlets, as well as imitation ground beef. It springs from a single-celled fungus grown in large fermentation vats which are processed and textured to produce a food that can be easily manipulated for meat.

  • Tofu: Tofu derived from soybeans is perhaps the most widely recognized alternative for Paneer. It is an excellent source of protein, calcium, and iron. It is usually available in block form. ‘Tofu’ prepared by coagulation of soymilk by CaSO4 or MgCl2 contains about 8% of total proteins, 4-5% lipids, and about 2% of carbohydrates on a fresh weight basis. Tofu has a special nutritional value due to the presence of dietary fibers (about 1%) and the absence of cholesterol, as well as a very low energy value.

 

  • Tempeh: Tempeh is made from soybeans that have been soaked and cooked to soften them. Like sourdough bread, tempeh requires a starter culture/inoculum (Rhizopus oligoporus), which is added to the cooked beans. This mixture is left for 24 hours and the result is a firm-textured product with a somewhat nutty flavor and a texture similar to a chewy mushroom. 

New plant-based meat analogues should taste, feel and smell better, or at least as good as animal meat according to the perceptions of the majority of consumers. Probably, flavor (umami flavor associated with meat) and texture (fibre like as in meat products) are the most important keys to success, and at the same time, the biggest challenges for the researchers. It can be concluded that there is a demand as well as bright future of such products in the market keeping aside a few constraints which need a solution but with a heap of opportunities.

  1. Reference 
  1. http://ndpublisher.in/admin/issues/IJFFTV5N2b.pdf
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7142285/
  3. https://biospringer.com/en/why-consumers-crave-meat-analogues/
  4. https://www.roquette.com/food-and-nutrition/savoury/meat-analogue
  5. https://www.cerealsgrains.org/publications/cfw/2020/July-August/Pages/CFW-65-4-0040.aspx
  6. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2019/06/19/Meat-analogues-A-big-opportunity-for-improved-quality#

 

Change Room and Ante Room in Food Industry

The advancement in process technologies and engineering has made the process of scaling up a food production unit easy and cost-effective. The major concern which prevails in the current scenario is the hygienic and sanitary design for a food factory and its essential premises. Change Room and Ante Room play a critical role in reassuring the focus on quality and hygienic design and ensures to lessen/nullify the contamination from man-material movement.

Changing rooms fulfill the key function of a single entrance to the food production area for all staff, workers, visitors, contractors, etc. to minimize product cross-contamination. It serves as an area where:

  • Employees can store external clothing and personal effects
  • For maintaining personal hygiene and structured entry sequence by practicing the use of PPE (personal protective effects)
  • Facility for cleaning and laundering industry clothing and footwear’s
  • Segregated toilets from food production areas etc.

As far as possible, all employees, including senior management, production operatives, technical/ office staff, and the cleaning and maintenance operatives should enter the food manufacturing areas of a factory through the same single entrance and follow the same changing and hygiene procedures.

Requirements on Hygiene & Sanitary Practices

Changeroom and Ante Room are essential requirements in reinforcing the Hygiene and Sanitary practices in any food industry. All processing operations should be carried out in such a way that the risk of contamination of the product or packaging materials by any hazard is avoided. Such hazards may include:

  • Physical/foreign matters (e.g., metal, glass, plastic, insects, dust/dirt, etc.)
  • Chemicals (e.g., allergens, cleaning agents, disinfectants, lubricants)
  • Spoilage/ pathogenic micro-organisms.

Two levels of internal barriers are required for food, dairy, and beverages manufacturing processes:

Non-food production areas: The first level separates processing from non-processing areas. Food production areas should be segregated from non-food production areas such as locker rooms, canteens, utilities, boiler rooms, workshops, machinery rooms, laboratories, offices, meeting rooms, Separation should be by physical means such as walls, sufficient to prevent contamination of food production areas by pests, particulates, gases, and fumes.

Food production areas: The second level separates ‘high-risk’ from ‘low-risk within processing areas. Products range from low-risk – ambient stable, packaged foods. High risk includes chilled and other ready-to-eat foods.

Change Room and Ante Room

Entrance from non-production to production areas is practiced via Change rooms. Entrance into ‘high-risk’ areas is through a further Ante-room specifically designed for high-risk operations (Hygiene station etc.). A single one-way flow of production operations from raw materials at the beginning to finished products at the end minimizes the possibility of contamination.

The level of air cleanliness as design specification of the air handling system reduces the risk of cross-contamination of high-risk product and hence, these areas may suitably have Heating and Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC for+ pressure) and airlock provided in between low & high-risk areas for the upkeep of hygiene. Air shower/curtains may be provisioned before entry to the high-risk processing sections such as the Cheese section, Infant food section, etc.

It would be better to provide a swipe card system or rack, indicating the total number of persons entering or present inside the respective section/plant. The facility should be designed such that the movement of employees, visitors, maintenance personnel, and contract workers throughout the facility is controlled in a manner that does not contribute to potential cross-contamination.

Functional requirement of Changing room

A changing area is necessary to provide basic privacy i.e., separate areas for males and females with separate washroom facilities with proper ventilation.  The basic requirements of a changing room are:

  • Air Curtain to be provided as a barrier between external side and Changeroom 1.03 Self-closing doors, proper lighting, and ventilation.
  • First aid kit to be made available.
  • The informative boards/poster about required personal hygiene practices and fire/emergency exits to be displayed.
  • Cross-over barrier/bench provided before entry into production area from the change room.
  • Work clothing should be changed at the entrance of the unit and given to the laundry at the end of the day. Employees should not come to work (from home) in their work clothing nor launder their work clothing themselves.
  • Open lockers to store outside footwear.
  • Provision of individual storage facilities, e.g., lockers, is required to ensure that staff’s outdoor clothing and personal effects can be securely stored for the duration of their work period. As staff’s personal effects may be contaminated, they also need to be stored separately from their Work clothing.

  • Before putting on factory clothing, the staff is required to undertake hand hygiene procedures to reduce the risk of cross-contamination to the food manufacturing area. This requires the provision of hand-wash sinks with detergent and hand drying facilities.
  • Hand washbasins to service a single hand wash. Hand washbasins must have automatic or elbow/foot-operated water supplied at a suitable temperature.
  • Suitable hand-drying equipment, e.g., paper towel dispensers or hot-air dryers. Closed-circuit television (CCT)/cameras/sensors as a potential monitor of hand wash compliance may be installed.
  • Changing rooms may have a definite barrier, which divides the external side of the changing room from the food manufacturing area. This barrier can be a simple line on the floor or a bench that operators can sit on when applying footwear cover before swinging their legs over into the food manufacturing area.
  • Open lockers at the barrier to store low-risk footwear/industry footwear/foot cover.
  • Ensure availability of Sanitizer dispensers adjacent to the high-risk production area.
  • After processing activities, facilities are required to hold used industry clothing either for laundering/cleaning and discard PPE (disposable– mask, gloves, hair net, etc.).
  • An area designed with suitable drainage for boot washing operations.

Ante Rom/Ante Area

Engineering proper HVAC systems for critical environments often involve distinct areas of room pressure control and directional airflow. An anteroom between a primary room and corridor ensures a safe airflow buffer zone between the controlled pressurized space and an unclean area. The two spaces are separated by a completely walled area with a door. However, in some applications, an ante area without walls or a door can achieve the same effect.
An ante area is a buffer zone of laminar or displacement airflow near a clean work area, such as a pharmaceutical compounding space. There is no physical separation between a gowning or wash area and the compounding area. Instead, proper placement of supply and exhaust airflow devices provides sufficient air velocity to sweep particles away from the compounding area and maintain unidirectional airflow during operations.

Hygiene Stations for High-risk food processing areas

The most important factor for planning the Hygiene station is the number of employees who must pass through the Hygiene station. The basic equipment of a Hygiene station includes:

  • Hand washing and hand disinfection devices.
  • Sole cleaning and sole disinfection equipment.
  • Shaft cleaning and shaft sole disinfection devices.
  • Hand drying system.
  • Non-contact sensor-controlled soap dispenser: doses an adjustable amount of liquid hand cleaner for hand cleaning.
  • Non-contact sensor-controlled hand wash basin with hot water supply is activated by a sensor for an adjustable time, integrated with paper towel dispenser followed by a hand dryer.
  • Non-contact sensor-controlled hand sanitizer dispenser for 2- hand wetting, doses an adjustable amount of disinfectant into the hands for better hygiene.

 

 

 

Personnel hygiene regimes are critical in reducing the potential for food contamination incidents. Whilst much can be done to design suitably hygienic and cleanable changing rooms and equipment that facilitate these regimes and allow them to minimize cross-contamination to operatives and the environment, the success of such regimes is still dependent on the actions of the operative. Future changing room designs, therefore, must concentrate on aiding the compliance and consistency of implementing these personnel hygiene regimes, perhaps by incorporating the results of psychological assessments as to why operatives do, or do not, undertake tasks.

References

 

  1. https://www.gotopac.com/art-cr-cleanroom-design-10-steps
  2. https://www.setra.com/blog/difference-between-anteroom-and-antearea
  3. https://www.setra.com/blog/what-is-iso-14644-1-cleanroom-classification
  4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286424210_Design_of_food_factory_changing_rooms
  5. https://cleanroomtechnology.com/news/article_page/How_to_design_the_food_cleanroom/170893
  6. https://www.dairyknowledge.in/sites/default/files/pdfs/Guidance_document_Change_Room_Design.pdf
  7. file:///C:/Users/pmg20/Dropbox%20(PMG)/Personal%20Folders/0.%20Reading%20Materials/smith2011.pdf
  8. https://blog.gotopac.com/2019/04/17/gowning-room-design-guidelines-anterooms-and-iso-classification/
  9. https://sci-hub.ru/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286424210_Design_of_food_factory_changing_rooms

 

Equipments in Warehouse

The world is in a global business right now. Plenty of goods from electronics to consumer goods to food are traveling from New Zealand to America, from Africa to China, etc. on a day-to-day basis. Some goods move slowly, others move very quickly, but it all must move. And they need to be stored in some place or other in between the movement.

Warehousing is the process of storing physical goods before they are sold or further distributed. Warehouses safely and securely store products in an organized way to track where items are located, when they arrived, how long they have been there, and the quantity on hand.

Importance of Warehouse Equipments

Warehouses store almost everything we eventually own, from food and clothing to furniture and electronics. They are diverse and can range from a small stocking room in the back of a business to a multi-thousand square foot area. Because size and functionality differ so much in warehouse buildings, the types of equipment needed for a smooth operation may vary as well.

The right equipment in right place in a warehouse will not only ease the flow of goods through each process area but will also reduce the possibility of injuries and product damage. One can have the best manpower to streamline the warehouse operations, but it is the equipment that plays a pivotal role in assisting humans to complete a task efficiently.

Contribution of Warehouses in Profit

Warehouses contribute to the profitability of a company in many aspects.

  • They can be used to buffer inventory to smooth out fluctuations in supply and demand. This is essential for maintaining a good customer relationship.
  • They may be used in building up investment stock. Some commodities like coffee, pepper, etc. whose prices fluctuate on a global scale can be stocked and then sold when the price is favorable.
  • A warehouse also assists in the most effective use of capital and labor within the manufacturing and supply units. It helps to keep overtime charges down and allows a company to buy and stock more supplies when prices from the supplier are more favorable.

Some Necessary Warehouse Equipments

  1. Dock Equipments

A loading dock or loading bay is an area of a building where goods vehicles (usually road or rail) are loaded and unloaded. Dock equipments ease out the processes of loading and unloading. Choosing the wrong dock equipment can put employees at risk. As the docking area is the junction of the receiving and shipping processes, its safety should always be the top priority.

As truck designs keep changing and safety is becoming a huge issue, selecting the right dock equipment can make the process more efficient, customizable, and safer as well as less time-consuming for workers. Types of dock equipments include:

  • Dock Boards and Plates
  • Edge of Dock Levelers
  • Dock Bumpers
  • Yard Ramps
  • Wheel Chocks
  • Dock levelers & Dock Lifts
  1. Conveyor

A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. They can speed up and/ or automate the process to save time and labour. Conveyors reduce human intervention, so they can reduce the risk of injuries. They can be expensive, but their benefits will overrule their expenses. Types of conveyors are:

  • Belt conveyors
  • Flexible conveyors
  • Vertical conveyors
  • Spiral conveyors
  • Pneumatic Conveyors
  • Chain conveyors

  1. Storage Equipments

The right selection of storage equipment will help to efficiently use the space of warehousing. It will also help in easy identification and reduce the damages. The most common storage equipments are:

  • Carousel
  • Racks
  • Shelves
  1. Lifting Equipments

They are different types of machines that help streamline transportation and storage of goods. They should be stable and adequate for the goods which are to be transported. The selection of lifting equipments should be done only after considering the type of inventory. Types of lifting equipments are:

  • Forklifts
  • Pallet Jacks
  • Hand Trucks
  • Service Carts
  • Cranes, Hoists, and Monorails
  • Dollies and Castors
  1. Packing equipments

Packing is one of the most important steps in the storage and transportation of any goods. Involves wrapping a product or designing a container to provide protection and ease off the transportation.

Packing equipments assist the staff in packing faster and increases the productivity. They also reduce labor costs and provide consistency in the wrapping process.

Types of packing equipments are:

  • Industrial Scales
  • Strapping and Banding Equipment
  • Stretch Wrap Machines
  • Packing Tables

Warehouses are an essential element in almost all businesses. However, the size of a warehouse may vary according to the business. A modern warehouse is composed of machines and humans working together to accomplish an array of processes and tasks. The warehouses are getting advanced and complex each day with the addition of artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics. So the maintenance and management of warehouse have become an important factor in the modern business.

Reference

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loading_dock
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_system
  3. https://www.shopify.in/encyclopedia/warehousing
  4. https://www.oberlo.in/ecommerce-wiki/warehousing
  5. https://www.logisticsbureau.com/about-warehousing/
  6. https://articles.cyzerg.com/warehouse-equipment-must-have-list
  7. https://www.sage.com/en-us/blog/glossary/what-is-a-warehouse/
  8. https://www.lencrowforklifts.com.au/news/different-types-of-material-handling-equipment-used-in-warehouse/
  9. https://www.douglasequipment.com/blog/top-14-material-handling-equipment-items-to-increase-efficiency-in-a-warehouse/

 

Processing of Frozen Dessert

No one knows exactly when a frozen dessert was first produced. Ancient manuscripts tell us that the Chinese liked a frozen product made by mixing fruit juices with snow – what we now call water ice. This technique later spread to ancient Greece and Rome, where the wealthy in particular were partial to frozen desserts.

Frozen dessert and Ice cream were made possible only by the discovery of the endothermic effect. Prior to this, cream could only be chilled but not frozen. It was the addition of salt, that lowered the melting point of ice, which had the effect of drawing heat from the cream and allowing it to freeze. The processing and production of Frozen dessert has drastically changed from then to now, with the addition of advance technologies and process lines in Ice cream. Before studying the process and manufacturing of Ice cream, a basic understanding on the raw materials and its chemistry is important to understand Ice cream on a larger scale.

  1. Raw Materials and Ingredients

The ingredients used in frozen dessert production are:

  • Fat

Fat makes up about 10 to 15% of the frozen dessert mix. The fat gives creaminess and improves melting resistance by stabilizing the air cell structure of the frozen dessert. Milk fat is replaced in the case of frozen dessert by vegetable fat, where refined or hydrogenated (hardened) coconut oil and palm kernel oil are most commonly used.

  • Milk solids non-fat (MSNF)

MSNF consists of proteins, lactose, and mineral salts derived from whole milk, skim milk, condensed milk, milk powders, and/or whey powder. In addition to its high nutritional value, MSNF helps to stabilize the structure of ice cream due to its water-binding and emulsifying effect. The same effect also has a positive influence on air distribution in the ice cream during the freezing process, leading to improved body and creaminess.

In a well-balanced recipe, the quantity of MSNF should always be in proportion to the water content. The optimal level is 17 parts MSNF to 100 parts water:

  • Sugar/non-sugar sweetener

Sugar is added to increase the solids content of the frozen dessert and give it the level of sweetness consumers prefer. Ice cream mix normally contains between 12 to 20% sugar. The consistency of the ice cream can also be adjusted by selecting different types of sugar. This makes it possible to produce ice cream that is easy to scoop.

In the production of sugar-free ice cream, sweeteners are used to replace sugar. Aspartame, acesulfame K and sucralose are the most commonly used sweeteners in ice cream and are applied in conjunction with a bulking agent such as maltodextrin, poly-dextrose, sorbitol, lactitol, glycerol, or other sugar alcohols.

  • Emulsifiers/stabilizers

Emulsifiers and stabilizers are typically used as combined products at dosages of 0.5% in the ice cream mix. Traditionally, these products were produced by dry blending, but today integrated products are preferred due to the improved dispersion and high storage stability.

Emulsifiers are substances that assist emulsification by reducing the surface tension between two phases. Emulsifiers bind the fat portion and non-fat portion of the ice cream top create a consistent matrix for the ice cream.

Stabilizer is a substance that can bind water when dispersed in a liquid phase. This is called hydration and means the stabilizer forms a matrix that prevents the water molecules from moving freely. Most of the stabilizers utilized for ice cream are large molecules derived from seeds, wood, or algae/seaweed. Stabilizers are used in ice cream production to increase the viscosity of the mix and create body and texture. They also control the growth of ice crystals and improve melting resistance.

  • Flavors

Flavors are a very important factor in the customer’s choice of ice cream and can be added at the mixing stage or after pasteurization. The most popular flavors are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

  • Colors

Natural or artificial colors are added to the mix to give the ice cream an attractive appearance. Local legislation exists in most countries regarding the use of colors in food.

  • Other ingredients

Ripples (sauces) are incorporated in frozen desserts for taste and appearance. They can also be applied for pencil filling and top decoration.

Dry ingredients are either added through an ingredient dozer or as top decoration matter on cones, cups, and bars. A great variety of products are used: chocolate, nuts, dried fruit pieces, candies, cookies, Smarties, caramel pieces, etc.

  1. Production Process

The production of Ice cream and frozen desserts are pretty much similar. The difference is that vegetable oil is used for preparing the mix in frozen desserts. After the mix preparation, the further steps are the same.

The major steps in the production process are:

  • Mix Preparation

This is one of the most crucial steps in the production of  Ice cream or Frozen Dessert. The tank-stored raw materials are heated and blended to form a homogenous mix that is pasteurized and homogenized. Large production plants often have two mix tanks for each flavor with a volume corresponding to the hourly capacity of the pasteurizer, in order to maintain a continuous flow to the freezers.

The dry ingredients, especially the milk powder, are generally added via a mixing unit, through which water is circulated, creating an ejector effect that sucks the powder into the flow. Before returning to the tank, the mix is normally heated to 50 to 60°C to facilitate dissolution. Liquid ingredients such as milk, cream, liquid sugar, etc. are measured into the mix tank.

  • Pasteurization and Homogenization

In large-scale production, the ice cream mix flows through a filter to a balance tank. From there it is pumped to a plate heat exchanger, where it is pre-heated to 73-75°C. After homogenization at 14 to 20 MPa (140-200 bar), the mix is returned to the plate heat exchanger and pasteurized at 83 to 85 °C for about 15 seconds.

The pasteurized mix is then cooled to 5°C and transferred to an ageing tank.The purpose of pasteurization is to destroy bacteria and dissolve additives and ingredients. The homogenization process results in uniformly small fat globules which improve the whipping property and texture of the ice cream mix.

  • Ageing

The mix must be aged for at least 4 hours at a temperature of 2 to 5°C with continuous gentle agitation. Ageing allows the milk proteins and water to interact and the liquid fat to crystallize. This results in better air incorporation and improved melting resistance.

  • Freezing and Packaging

Continues freezer is the device used to whip a controlled amount of air into the mix and to freeze a significant part of the water content in the mix into a large number of small ice crystals.

The ice cream mix is metered into the freezing cylinder by a gear pump. At the same time, a constant airflow is fed into the cylinder and whipped into the mix by a dasher. The refrigerant surrounding the cylinder generates the freezing process. The layer of the frozen mix on the inside cylinder wall is continuously scraped off by the rotating dasher knife, and a second gear pump drives the ice cream forward either to an ingredient feeder or a filling machine.

The output temperature is -8 to -3°C depending on the type of ice cream product, where 30 to 55% of the water is frozen into ice crystals depending on the composition of the mix formulation.

The increase in volume following the incorporation of air in the mix is called overrun, and is normally 80 to 100%, corresponding to 0.8 to 1 liter of air per litre of the mix.

  • Hardening and Storage

A filling machine fills the frozen dessert directly from the freezer into cups, cones, and containers of varying designs, shapes, and sizes. Filling takes place through a time-lapse filler, a volumetric filler, or an extrusion filler. In the case of extrusion filling, a cutting mechanism is provided. Decoration with various ingredients is possible, including nuts, fruits, chocolate, jams, or gumballs.

Lids are put on the packs before leaving the machine, after which they are passed through a hardening tunnel where final freezing to -20°C product core temperature takes place.

Before or after hardening, the products can be manually or automatically packed in cartons or bundles. Plastic tubes or cardboard cartons can be filled manually through a can-filling unit equipped to supply single or twin flavors.

Ice cream has come a long way since the first snow cone was made. Innovations in a variety of areas over the past century have led to the development of highly sophisticated, automated manufacturing plants that churn out pint after pint of ice cream. Significant advances in fields such as mechanical refrigeration, chilling and freezing technologies, cleaning and sanitation, packaging, and ingredient functionality have shaped the industry.

New developments in ice cream freezer technology will be likely in the future as freezers are better engineered to control the complex microstructures in ice cream. Current freezers are designed to form ice, create air bubbles, and destabilize fat globules in the short time that ice cream spends in the scraped surface freezer. A better understanding of how to optimize each of these structure developments will lead to more efficient freezer operations.

  1. Reference

Impact of Climate Change in Food Processing

The term “weather” refers to how the atmosphere behaves in a specific area over a short period of time, usually hours or days. “Climate” refers to general weather patterns over a broad area for a long period. Both weather and climate account for qualities like temperature, precipitation, and humidity.

Both climate and weather are often used together. But climate is different from the weather because it is measured over a long period of time, whereas weather can change from day to day, or from year to year. The climate of an area includes seasonal temperature and rainfall averages, and wind patterns. Different places have different climates. Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a place. Climate change could refer to a particular location or the planet as a whole. Climate change may cause weather patterns to be less predictable.

These unexpected weather patterns can make it difficult to maintain and grow crops in regions that rely on farming because expected temperature and rainfall levels can no longer be relied on. Climate change is a natural process that is undergone on the planet from its beginning. But the problem we are facing now is the accelerated rate of climate change due to human intervention.

What Causes Climate Change?

Global Warming is one of the major causative issues for climate change. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are described as “forcing” climate change. The major gases that contribute to global warming are: Water vapor, Carbon dioxide, Chloro-Fluro carbons, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.

The causes of these rising emissions are:

  • Burning coal, oil, and gas produce carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
  • Cutting down forests (deforestation). Trees help to regulate the climate by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. When they are cut down, that beneficial effect is lost and the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect.
  • Increasing livestock farming. Cows and sheep produce large amounts of methane when they digest their food.
  • Fertilizers containing nitrogen produce nitrous oxide emissions.
  • Fluorinated gases are emitted from equipment and products that use these gases. Such emissions have an extraordinarily strong warming effect, up to 23,000 times greater than CO2.

Food And Climate Change

A stronger greenhouse effect will warm the ocean and partially melt glaciers and ice sheets, increasing the sea level. Ocean water also will expand if it warms, contributing further to sea-level rise. This will eventually affect the marine species and on a bigger scale, the land available for the production and cultivation of crops reduce on a larger scale unnoticeably which will cause issues in the food supply throughout the globe.

Outside of a greenhouse, higher atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels can have both positive and negative effects on crop yields. Some laboratory experiments suggest that elevated CO2 levels can increase plant growth. However, other factors, such as changing temperatures, ozone, and water and nutrient constraints, may more than counteract any potential increase in yield. If optimal temperature ranges for some crops are exceeded, earlier possible gains in yield may be reduced or reversed altogether.

Climate extremes, such as droughts, floods, and extreme temperatures, can lead to crop losses and threaten the livelihoods of agricultural producers and the food security of communities worldwide. Depending on the crop and ecosystem, weeds, pests, and fungi can also thrive under warmer temperatures, wetter climates, and increased CO2 levels, and climate change will likely increase weeds and pests.

Finally, although rising CO2 can stimulate plant growth, research has shown that it can also reduce the nutritional value of most food crops by reducing the concentrations of protein and essential minerals in most plant species. Climate change can cause new patterns of pests and diseases to emerge, affecting plants, animals, and humans, and posing new risks for food security, food safety, and human health.

The extent and degree of warming are going to get more severe. As carbon emissions continue and those which are built into the climate system take effect, temperatures across the world are expected to increase between 3-5 degree Celsius by 2100. India is among the countries which are likely to bear the worst of a warming planet due to its tropical location and relatively lower levels of income.

The global population is expected to increase from 7.7 billion in 2019 to 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050. According to the United Nation’s World Population Prospects (June 2019), the Indian population is projected to increase from 1.36 billion in 2019 to 1.5 billion by 2030 and 1.64 billion by 2050.

Scientific Research

The solution to climate change will come from science alone. In 2011, research on the impact of climate change on agriculture and possible ideas to mitigate the risk was started by the Union agriculture ministry, and the National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) was launched through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The primary objective was to develop suitable technologies for production and risk management for crops, livestock, and fisheries.

The research was undertaken at seven major institutions of ICAR across India. NICRA has identified 151 climatically vulnerable districts but politicians in many of these states may be oblivious to this. Research on impact assessment on crops was conducted using simulation models for climate projections for 2020, 2050, and 2080. Simulations show that the yield of rice in irrigated areas may decrease by 7% in 2050 and 10% in 2080. The yield of maize in irrigated areas of Kharif was projected to decline by 18% by 2020.

The yield of maize did decline in 2018-19 due to low rainfall in several maize growing areas but better rainfall in July and August 2019 may have ensured that the projection of decrease in maize yield may not happen again in 2019-20.

Research at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal has found that heat stress harms the reproduction traits of cows and buffaloes, and their fertility will be adversely impacted.

Scientists of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute have found that fish species on the east coast may be much more vulnerable to climate change than fish varieties found on the west coast. Climate change will impact ocean current, acidification, temperature, and food availability. All of this will affect the production of fish.

NICRA has projected that rice and wheat in Indo-Gangetic plains, sorghum, and potato in West Bengal and sorghum, potato, and maize in the southern plateau are likely to see reduced productivity. The study also found that the productivity of soybean, groundnut, chickpea, and potato in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh may go up. Similarly, the productivity of apples in Himachal Pradesh may increase. An increase in temperature and rainfall pattern may also result in a lower yield of cotton in north India.

Solutions and Development from India

Scientists have been working hard to breed varieties of different crops that are climate resilient. One such success is Sahbhagidhan, a variety of paddy which was jointly developed by the International Rice Research Institute and Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station of ICAR at Hazaribagh. It was released in 2010 and since then, it has gained success in uplands in eastern India in drought conditions. It matures in 105 days while most other varieties take 120-150 days to maturity. Farmers can plant another crop after harvesting this.

IRRI is also breeding a flood-tolerant variety of paddy by manipulating genes to get better strains which can enable paddy rice to survive for up to 15 days of submergence in floodwater. It has identified such varieties in Odisha and Sri Lanka which have a Sub 1 gene. If and when this flood-tolerant variety is released either through breeding or through genetic modification, farmers in flood-prone regions would be keen to accept it, even if activists are opposed to the release of new GM varieties in India.

Research on climate-resilient varieties of wheat, mustard, lentil, chickpea, mung bean, groundnut, and soybean are also under progress in various institutions of ICAR.

What can we do?

When it comes to climate change, the major question that arises in everyone’s mind is that what can a single person do in it. There are many things’ individuals can do in reducing the pace of climate change. Some of them are:

  1. Speak Up:

Raising voices is an easy and most effective solution against any huge problem in the current era of social media. The issues can reach up to the government and policymakers, which is in fact happening now from various parts of the world.

  1. Switch to Renewable energy:

Switching to possible renewable energy sources will reduce the carbon emission in the atmosphere.

  1. Invest in Energy Efficient Appliances:

This is a basic thing which each individual can focus on if he/she wants to take part in climate protection activities.

  1. Reduce water wastage:

Saving water reduces carbon pollution, too. That is because it takes a lot of energy to pump, heat, and treat your water. So, take shorter showers, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, and switch to Water Sense-labeled fixtures and appliances.

  1. Reduce Food wastage:

The food industry uses a tremendous amount of energy per year to feed the global population. Food wastage hence has a drastic effect on climate change. If you’re wasting less food, you’re likely cutting down on energy consumption. And since livestock products are among the most resource-intensive to produce, cutting down the excess meat consumption can make a big difference, too.

  1. Shrink your Carbon Profile:

You can offset the carbon you produce by purchasing carbon offsets, which represent clean power that you can add to the nation’s energy grid in place of power from fossil fuels. 

Countries that are most vulnerable to climate change have typically been responsible for a small share of global emissions, which raises questions about justice and fairness. Climate change is strongly linked to sustainable development. Limiting global warming makes it easier to achieve sustainable development goals, such as eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities. The goals on food, clean water, and ecosystem protection have synergies with climate change mitigation.

References

  1. https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
  2. https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/
  3. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming
  4. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-change/
  5. https://thewire.in/agriculture/climate-change-poses-serious-threats-to-indias-food-security
  6. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/food-news/how-climate-change-is-affecting-food-production/photostory/71939943.cm
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#:~:text=Climate%20change%20includes%20both%20global,scale%20shifts%20in%20weather%20patterns.

 

 

Global Food Safety Initiative

About GFSI

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is basically a management system which helps in food safety and ensures safe delivery of food to consumers in the world. It is collaborated with different leading food safety experts like retailers, manufacturers, food safety companies and some service providers which are associated with food supply chain management. Some retailers have also identified the need of GFSI like enhancing food safety, ensuring consumer protection, and strengthening confidence in consumer.

GFSI is coordinated by consumer goods forum with almost 400 members. It was launched in Dublin, Ireland on 31st May 2000 at The CIES Annual Executive Congress. GFSI works on fulfilling food safety requirements for food safety schemes through the process known as benchmarking. In 2005 under the Belgian law the GFSI foundation was created as non- profit entity. There are certain objectives, certifications, benchmarks, accreditation, and governance which need to be discussed in this article.

Objectives of GFSI

  • Converges promotion among food safety standards by maintaining benchmark processes for schemes related to food safety management.
  • Cost efficiency is improved by retailers when standards of GFSI is recognized and accepted during food supply chain.
  • Unique international stakeholders’ platform is provided to share the information, understandings, interactions, and knowledge related to food safety standards and practices.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a procedure in which schemes related to food safety are compared with the GFSI Guidance Documents. Guidance Documents includes key elements to produce food requirements, guidance to schemes seeking compliance, requirements for the delivery of conforming schemes.

Benchmarking process has several applicants going through it and GFSI does not restrict any opportunity for schemes to be formally recognized. There are some benchmark schemes:

  1. Manufacturing schemes
  2. Primary production schemes
  3. Primary production and manufacturing scheme

Certifications

Certification body is basically not a scheme owner to give issuance of the certifications or develop an impact or change requirements of audit. It just carries out the audit as per the scheme requirements. For the issuance of certification, the certification body must submit result to the scheme owner. It is accredited to carry out audits through on program audits. There are different certifications for every individual:

  1. Certified Auditor- SQF, BRC, FSSC22000
  2. Certified Practitioner- HACCP Training Course must be completed, should have proper understanding of SQF Code(s), must qualify “Implemented SQF Systems” exams.
  3. Certified Trainer- must have successful completion of “Train and Trainer” course, training experience in food safety and quality, successful implementation on SQF 2000 Systems, SQF 1000 Systems, SQF Auditor Course.
  4. Approved Training Provider (ATP)- ATPs are professional individuals having working knowledge of food and requires many years of training in consumer products sectors.

Strengths

  • The benchmarking process assures consistency in evaluating content and program.
  • The audits have more review of product control procedures, process control and includes additional elements to personnel.
  • All the non- conformances is to be cleared for the requirement of certification which forces the site to identify issues in order to obtain the certification.

Weakness

  • The documentation emphasizes the Audit.
  • The paperwork emphasizes on food safety program as proof.
  • Consulting is not allowed during the Audit. The auditors are extremely limited in how to improve the information to assist the plant.

 Conclusion

The global food safety initiative is basically a private organization which was established by the Consumer Goods Forum. The GFSI maintains the standards of food safety and ensures safe food delivery. It has certain objectives which maintains benchmarks to food safety management, have improvement in cost efficiency during food supply chain and have a unique stakeholder platform. Benchmarking process is an important role with the help of GFSI Guidance document. There are some certifications which is important for every individual performing the task of GFSI management system.

References

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Food_Safety_Initiative
  2. https://globalfoodsafetyresource.com/benchmarking-gfsi/
  1.  

Frozen Dessert

Walking past a dessert shop and pulling down parents for getting an ice cream, kulfi or a sherbet would have been one of the most blissful childhood memories for most of us. But when it comes to business it is an issue of huge lawsuits and technical issues happening in the backdrop while you are buying an ice cream or a frozen dessert. An issue began in India the early 2010s between two dairy and food giants of the nation, due to a disparity claimed by the latter in Bombay High Court. Later Labelling was made essential by the food regulatory authority to mention the product is an Ice cream or a Frozen dessert.

FSSAI (Food Safety And Standards Authority of India) defines frozen dessert as a product obtained by freezing a pasteurized mix prepared with edible vegetable oils or fats, having a melting point of not more than 370C or vegetable protein products, or both. It may also contain milk fat and other milk solids with the addition of nutritive sweeteners and other permitted non-dairy ingredients. The said product may contain incorporated air and maybe frozen hard or frozen to a soft consistency.

  1. Components

Frozen dessert/ Ice Cream is a colloidal emulsion made with water, ice, milk fat, milk protein, sugar, and air. Water and fat have the highest proportions by weight creating an emulsion that has dispersed phase as fat globules. The emulsion is turned into foam by incorporating air cells which are frozen to form dispersed ice cells.

The triacylglycerols in fat are non-polar and will adhere to themselves by Van der Waals interactions. Water is polar; thus, emulsifiers are needed for dispersion of fat. Also, ice cream has a colloidal phase of foam which helps in its light texture. Milk proteins such as casein and whey protein present in ice cream are amphiphilic, can adsorb water and form micelles which will contribute to its consistency.

The proteins contribute to the emulsification, aeration, and texture. Sucrose which is disaccharide is usually used as a sweetening agent. Lactose which is sugar present in milk will cause freezing point depression. Thus, on freezing some water will remain unfrozen and will not give a hard texture. Too much lactose will result in a non-ideal texture because of either excessive freezing point depression or lactose crystallization.

The essential components for a frozen dessert are:

Raw Material. –

  • Milk and/or milk products.
  • Vegetable oils or fats.
  • Vegetable protein products.

Permitted ingredients. –

  • Sugar and other nutritive sweeteners (e.g. jaggery, dextrose, fructose, liquid glucose, dried liquid glucose, high maltose corn syrup, honey, etc.)
  • Potable water
  • Starch provided it is added only in amounts functionally necessary as governed by Good Manufacturing Practice, taking into account any use of the permitted stabilizers or thickeners.
  • Other non-dairy ingredients – fruit and fruit products, eggs and egg products, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, confectionery, condiments, spices, ginger, and nuts; bakery products such as cake or cookies.

Parameter

Frozen Dessert/ Frozen Confection

Medium Fat Frozen Dessert/ Confection

Low Fat Frozen Dessert/ Confection

Total Solids% (min)(m/m)

36

30

26

 Weight (min)(m/m)

525

475

475

Total fat%(min)(m/m)

10

2.5 < x < 10

2.5

Protein (min)(m/m)

3.5

3.5

3.0

 

  1. Ice Cream and Frozen Dessert

The simplest way to explain the difference between ice cream and a frozen dessert is that ice cream is made from milk/cream (dairy) and frozen desserts are made with vegetable oils. Considering the fact in detail, a frozen dessert contains vegetable oil and may or may not contain milk fat. On the other hand, an Ice cream contains only milk fat and no vegetable oil as the fat portion. An important issue with vegetable oil if they are hydrogenated is that they are rich in trans-fat, which is considered unhealthy, and inferior compared to milk fat.

Ice cream and frozen desserts have come a long way since the first snow cone was made. Innovations in a variety of areas over the past century have led to the development of highly sophisticated, automated manufacturing plants that churn out pint after pint of ice cream. Significant advances in fields such as mechanical refrigeration, chilling and freezing technologies, cleaning and sanitation, packaging, and ingredient functionality have shaped the industry.

Advances in our understanding of the science of ice cream, particularly related to understanding the complex structures that need to be controlled to create a desirable product, have also enhanced product quality and shelf stability. Although significant advances have been made, there remain numerous opportunities for further advancement both scientifically and technologically.

 

 3.   Reference

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_dessert
  2. https://dairyprocessinghandbook.tetrapak.com/chapter/ice-cream
  3. https://www.allrecipes.com/article/difference-between-frozen-dessert-and-ice-cream
  4. https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/ice-cream-vs-frozen-dessert-the-chilling-truth-694000
  5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227580162_Ice_Cream_and_Frozen_Desserts
  6.  

Flooring In Food Industry

Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. The food industry is one of the most challenging ones when it comes to the field of flooring. Many factors are to be considered in the selection of flooring materials and their finish. Floors in food manufacturing or food preparation premises must be able to be cleaned effectively and thoroughly, must not absorb grease, food substances, or water, harbor pests or bacteria, and should be laid to a safe design so as not to cause the pooling or ponding of the water. Different grades of flooring are needed for the different areas found within the food environment. For example, production areas often need a hard-wearing, chemical-resistant floor finish, which can stand up to heavy machinery and general wear and tear.

Pre-requisite for flooring

The floor finish has several different functions in a factory. The main parameters to be considered in the selection of flooring material is: 

  1. Hygienic and easy to clean surface

As part of its HACCP quality system, a producer must assure himself that a floor will not compromise food safety. The easiest way to do this is to use a flooring system that has appropriate third-party certification for use in food handling facilities. Also, a floor should be dense, impervious, and with bacterial cleanability comparable to stainless steel

  1. Safe working environment

The floor must provide a safe working environment for operatives so it must have an appropriate level of slip resistance. The correct level of slip resistance, for any given area, will depend upon activities taking place. 

  1. Durability

Durability comes from a combination of physical and chemical properties. It requires resistance to chemicals and thermal shock, as well as mechanical abrasion and impact.

Floor Zoning

A zoning plan on the surface of the floor is a good idea if a food plant has identified any areas at risk of cross-contamination or other hazards and is looking to segregate areas or zones by different processes or procedures or to designate different levels of hygiene through a simple color-coded system.

Although there is no universal system or language in place, pigmented flooring materials can be used to designate walkways or hazard risks in line with individual company policies and practices. The zoning helps to identify the high-risk and low-risk areas. Sensitive wet and dry processing areas need floors that deliver the ultimate in hygiene performance. In these environments, steam cleanable products are often sought. For sensitive areas, such as tray washrooms, antimicrobial floors are often chosen.

Flooring Options

There are many different food processing floor options available in the marketplace.  Epoxy and urethane systems are readily available.  However, cementitious urethane floors are considered the modern, high-performance, standard for food and beverage safe flooring in processing facilities. The ceramic tiles, Dairy tiles, and hard non-reactive stones were the most used ones in the previous decades. 

The flooring options can be classified into two main categories Tiles/Stones, and floor coatings.

  1. Tiles/ Stones

When looking at food processing floor options, dairy brick, and quarry tile quickly come to mind.  These are products that have widely been used in the food processing industry.  At one time, these products were the only systems available (before the advent of seamless polymeric floors).  These systems are only a viable choice for new construction or long production shutdowns.  Drawbacks include the added thickness of these systems, along with a prolonged installation duration.  These issues make brick and tile difficult or impossible for renovation and fast turnaround projects.

Mandanna Stone Tiles are the most commonly used tiles in the dairy industry in India. Mandana Sandstone is a chocolate-colored sandstone with colors ranging from dark red-brown to plum. This is hard-wearing & frost-resistant sandstone.

  1. Floor Coatings

Floor coatings are tough, protective layers used in applications where heavy surface wear or corrosion is expected. Food processing plant flooring options are different types of coating, which go onto something like concrete flooring.

  • Epoxy Coatings

There are numerous types of food-grade epoxy flooring available in the market. They are a fantastic option and are incredibly durable, with many benefits. They can withstand exposure to agents like acids and alkalis, which have the potential to damage other kinds of flooring.

There is also the option to include additives—like anti-skid additives—to the epoxy mix to create an even better product. Certain types of food-safe epoxy coating options, like novolacs, also offer greater chemical and heat resistance. Epoxy coatings cure quickly, which means less downtime within the facility, unlike other options on the market. Epoxy coatings are also a visually appealing option, with the ability to add aggregates like quartz or marble into the mixture.

  • Urethane Coatings

A polyurethane coating (or urethane floor coating), is a highly flexible, highly abrasion-resistant floor coating that is known for its shine and longevity. These can have a more considerable upfront cost but will last much longer than other flooring options.

Additives in the urethane mixture provide these floors with superior resistance to thermal cycling, which helps add to its long-lasting nature. This helps to make them a popular choice in food processing plants that work with meat and poultry products+++. Like epoxies, urethane can have decorative touches added to it to make the flooring more visually appealing.

  • Methyl Methacrylate(MMA) Coatings

Methyl methacrylate (MMA) systems offer food manufacturing and processing environments certain performance advantages compared to alternative resin materials, most notably their ability to cure at an incredible speed and be installed at extremely low temperatures.

MMA resin can fully cure in just one to two hours, making it an ideal choice for operational facilities looking to minimize downtime and disruption as well as fast-track new-build construction projects. MMA resin material demonstrates a high level of resistance to a range of acids and alkalis. Although MMAs have a unique odour during installation, the odour is harmless and can be minimised during installation with proper ventilation.

  • Poly Ureas Coatings

For a flooring option that does well in demanding environments, there are polyureas coatings. These coatings are impact resistant. They are the quickest to cure and give off virtually no odor. Because polyureas coatings are flexible flooring, they are also better able to withstand extreme temperatures found in various facilities.

Cleaning and Maintenance

An effective cleaning and maintenance routine should be in place to preserve the aesthetic and performance of the floor finish but more importantly to reduce the risk of microbial contamination. Between wash cycles, resin-based flooring materials should, where possible, be maintained in a dry state and at low relative humidity conditions.

Flooring must be sloped at around 1.5-2% to allow water to drain correctly. Resin flooring will not be affected by most special-purpose cleaning materials when these are used in accordance with the Chemical Cleaning Manufacturers’ instructions. Specific cleaning instructions should also be sought from the resin flooring manufacturer.

With so many options to choose from, selecting a fit-for-purpose flooring solution that can withstand the operational demands of food manufacturing, processing, and packaging environments can be challenging. On top of this, stringent health, safety, and hygiene standards, as well as budget constraints, must be considered.

Reference

  1. https://blog.slotdrainsystems.com/food-processing-flooring-101
  2. https://www.blackbearconcrete.com/food-and-beverage-flooring-requirements-blog/
  3. https://www.academia.edu/38300009/Handbook_of_hygiene_control_in_the_food_industry
  4. https://concreteflooringsolutions.co.uk/blog/what-are-the-best-types-of-industrial-flooring/
  5. https://epfloors.com/epoxy-flooring-types/food-processing-floors/food-processing-floor-options/
  6. https://www.flowcreteasia.com/media/8569/fc-asia-floor-failure-in-the-food-industry-ebook-aw-web.pdf
  7. https://www.myprocessexpo.com/blog/industry-perspectives/hygienic-flooring-the-role-of-floor-coatings-in-keeping-food-safe/
  8. https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/1295364/BASF%20Ucrete/Website/Languages/United%20Kingdom/Pdf/18031-basf-whitepaper-uncrete-v6.pdf