Processing: from field to factory

Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products (raw materials) into food, or of one form of food into other forms.

Food handling and processing are seasonal in nature, both in terms of request for items and accessibility of unprocessed raw materials but food processors wanting to meet the customer necessities and willings would like a ceaseless supply of raw materials, whose composition and quality are consistent, and whose costs are unsurprising.

As you can understand this can't happen as the foremost crops have well established harvest times, and even in the case of raw materials which are accessible all through the year, there are differencies in volume of production, and variety in chemical composition. Thus, processors have to contract ahead with producers to synchronize their needs with raw material production.

The aim of this session is to consider the properties of raw materials in connection to food processing, and to outline critical viewpoints of handling, transport, storage and post harvest preparation operations of raw materials, that take part in the field or/and to the factory, earlier to the run of processing operations.We'll also discuss about the changes that occur in physical, chemical, microbiological and organoleptic properties of material and will address some concerns about their impact on the environment and the connection of this processing step with SDGs. Last but not least, we'll explore some STEM careers on this field of food technology.

MISSION

Sttudents' mission was to collect as mush information as possible, related to:

the properties of raw materials,
the technology behind the main preparatory methods used in food industry
the affects of operations to raw materials
the impact of those operations to the environment

so as to create STEM comics, infographics, posters, mind maps, presentations, etc. that will be used in order to inform theirr family and local community for the proper use of these operations and how these could be applied at home.

Raw material properties

What's food quality?

Talking about quality we mean the combination of their physical and chemical properties that serve the needs, and determine its degree of acceptance by the food processor or/and the consumer.

How can food quality be achieved?

High quality products can be produced only from high quality raw materials.

Raw material classification

The raw materials are divided to two categories based to their origin: animal origin and plant origin:

Meat, Seafood, and Poultry (animal origin)
Grains, Seeds, and Nuts (plant origin)
Fruits and vegetables (plant origin)
Dairy products (animal origin)
Eggs (animal origin)
Honey (animal origin)

Physical properties of raw material

As physical properties are meant: the obvious (organoleptic) characteristics, such as : shape, appearance, taste, smell, flavour, texture, color, defects, aroma, size, density, freshness, etc.

Chemical properties of raw material

Chemical properties of food are those properties that cannot be measured without altering the chemical composition of the food material, such as: moisture content and water activity, fat content, pH, acidity, viscosity, nutritive value, enzyme concentration,etc.

Exogenous factors that affect quality of raw materials

preharvest factors (soil conditions, climate and agricultural practices, use of pesticide residues, etc.)
harvesting (timing, and methods)
postharvest conditions during transportation,storage, and handling (temperature, humidity, environmental conditions,
time of the transfer in form of durtion, etc)
preparatory operations.

After brainstorming on the above meanings and a research to the web students edited collaborativelly a Google presentation. Then there was a forum discussion based to the following question:

What standards must be met when sourcing raw materials for food processing?

Harvesting

definition

What's harvesting?

critical thinking

Why and how harvesting mistakes can be costly?

DESIGN

A mind map

upload

Photos/ Reports of observations during harvesting

discuss

Which are, in your opinion, some of the basic principles of harvesting?

Post harvesting preparatory processes

Students were encouraged to attend this talking presentation and read the following reports:
- Postharvest Handling and Preparation of Foods for Processing Alistair S. Grandison

- The role of post-harvest management in assuring the quality and safety of horticultural produce

Then they were encouraged to choose one raw material, and design a presentation in the form of poster or infographic or STEM comic describing the post harvest operations applied to this, and upload that to the following padlet:

Preparatory food processing and SDGs

Forum Discussion

Could you suggest some ideas on how to achieve sustainability in that stages??

sustainable-development-goals-round-concept-sustainable-development-goals-round-concept-wh