UNIT OPERATION IN FOOD PROCESSING

PREPARATION OF RAW
MATERIALS BEFORE PROCESSING
PART B
(SORTING AND GRADING
PROCESS)
Prepared by: Pn Rosliza Bt. Mohd Radzali
Objectives
Explain the sorting and grading process.

Define each types of sorting and grading process.

Identify types of sorting and grading process.

Explain the reasons of sorting and grading process.

Explain and identify the related equipment for each
types of grading and sorting process.
SORTING
Sorting
Separation operation based on the
differences in physical properties of the
food raw material and products.

Separation based on single properties
such as color or photometric, size, shape
or weight of the food raw material.




WEIGHT SORTING



The weight of food unit is proportional to the cube of its
characteristic dimension sorting.

E.g: meat cuts, fish fillets, fruits such as apples, pears
and citrus fruits, vegetables such as potatoes, carrots
and onions and eggs.

Typical weight-sorting machines carry fruits in tare
canvas pocket attached to pivoted beams fitted with
counterbalance weight.

As the beams pass along the sorter, the beam fulcrum
is moved toward the counterbalance weight until such
time as the weight of the fruit causes the beam to tip,
discharging the fruit into padded chutes in weight
categories.

Weight Sorting




SIZE SORTING
Size Sorting
Different types of screen are used for size separation of
foods.

The screen designs commonly used in food industry
may be grouped into two types:
(i) variable aperture screens using cable, belt, roller or
screw sorter.
(ii) Fixed aperture screens using stationary, vibratory,
rotary, gyratory or reciprocating screens.

Fixed aperture screens of flat-bed type are used in
preliminary sorting of potatoes, carrots and turnips.

Multi-decks screen are used in size sorting of cereals,
nuts, flour, sugar, salt, ground spices and herbs.





Drum screen are used for sorting peas, beans and
other similar food capable withstanding tumbling action
in a rotary drum screen.

Variable aperture screen with continuously variable
apertures of roller, belt or screw type find use in
sorting of vegetable and fruits.





SHAPE SORTING
Shape Sorting
Shape sorting is adopted when food materials contain
undesirable material even after size or weight sorting
and cleaning.

Shaoe sorting on the basis of a combination of length
and diameter is useful under such circumstances.

A discs sorter used for shape sorting wheat, rice, oats
and barley.
The disc sorter has indentations on both sides of the vertically
rotating, discs mounted on a motor driven horizontal shaft.
The vertically rotating discs pass through unsorted food held in
a trough at the lower end of their rotation, collect the food of
correct shape in the indentations and discharge the collected
material into bins at the top of their rotation.
Undesirable materials such as weed seeds will not fit into
indentations on the discs and hence will not be collected by the
rotating discs.





Spherical weed seeds may be removed from wheat and
other cereals by shape sorting using their tendency to
travel down an inclined surface.

The weed seed will easily roll down while the desired
material moves upward along with the belt and is
discharged at the upstream end.




COLOR / PHOTOMETRIC
SORTING
Color / Photometric Sorting
Photometric sorting uses optical properties of foods to
effect separation of desired material from
contaminants.

Optical properties such as reflectance and
transmittance of foods are useful indicators in a variety
of ways.

Reflectance properties are used to indicate:
i) Raw material maturity (e.g: color of fruit, vegetables
and meat indicate ripeness and freshness
characteristics)
ii) The presence of surface defects (e.g:worm holed
cereals or nuts and bruised fruits)
iii) The extent of heat processing (e.g: in the
manufacture of biscuits, bread and potato chips or
crisps)





Mechanical reflectance color sorter used

to sort, clean and grade food such as nuts, cereals
and coffee beans containing worm-hole or other
defects.

Diced vegetables, whole potatoes, onions and fruits
which are incompletely peeled.

Citrus fruits and tomatoes exhibiting maturity
differences.

Finish food product such as jams, peanuts butter and
crisps exhibiting differences in processing.


Principle of color sorter


The color sorter principles operation

Functions on the basis of photometric scanning of
each food unit as it moves past or rotated before a
photocell.

The signal generated by the photocell is compared to
an adjustable pre-set standard signal automatically
and any imbalance between the two signals is
amplified and used to activate the sorting gear.

Rejection systems of different types are used.
A pneumatic rejection system is used for small
particulate foods, the signal from the
discriminator being used to operate an air jet
which deflects substandard material into the
reject chute.

Electrostatic separation also used which is the
rejected material being charged by an electrode
and then withdrawn from the bulk by an
oppositely charge deflector

The transmittance sorting
A non-destructive internal examination of liquid and
solid foods.

The method requires a very sensitive detection
system as only about 0.1% of the incident light
energy is transmitted through the food.

Apples are sorted by measuring the transmittance at
6923 nm which is related to the chlorophyll content
of the flesh of the fruit and hence to its maturity.
GRADING
Grading Of Raw Materials
Is a process to separate a raw materials to different
categories of quality .

Grading is carried out by operators to simultaneously
assess a number of variable.

For example, cheese and tea, which are assessed for
flavor, aroma ,color.

In some cases the grade of food is determined from the
results of laboratory analyses (for example wheat flour
is assessed for protein content, dough extensibility,
color, moisture content and presence of insects).

Grading Of Raw Materials
Grading is quality separation on the basis
of an overall assessment of those
properties, which effect this acceptance
of the food raw material for processing,
and finished food product for consumer
acceptance and safety.
Factors of Grading
Process suitability
Consumer safety
Conformity with legal requirements
Consumer acceptance.
Types of Grading
MANUAL GRADING
Is done by trained operators whoa are able to assess
a number of grading parameters simultaneously.

E.g: eggs are graded manually by candling.
This is non-destructive examination of the egg
contents through the translucent shell when the egg
is spun in front of a powerful light in a darkened
booth.
The presentation of each egg is automatic and a
candling operator can separate several thousand
eggs an hour into 3 or 4 grades taking into account
up to 20 different grading parameters

Types of Grading

In certain cases, light of specific wavelength may be
used to grade food units.
Thus blood spots in eggs are detected when light of
wavelength 577 and 597 nm is used while green rot
is revealed by fluorescence at 490 and 510 nm.

DISADVANTAGES
Costly
Boredom and fatigue reduce grading efficiency.



Types of Grading
MACHINE GRADING
Carried out by combining a group of sorting
operations so as to separate the food units on
quality basis.
Wheat graded by a combination of cleaning and
sorting operation.
Peas of small size are recognized to be most tender
and of highest quality so that size sorting of cleaned
peas results in quality grading.
Potatoes of high density, desirable for manufacturing
french fries, potatoes crisps and dehydrated mashed
potato may be graded using flotation in brines.

Mechanical grading is cost effective and efficient.

Sorting Process
Grading Process
Thank you
Post-test
State whether these statement are True or False

1.The present of contaminant such as fungal and
yeast can reduce the quality of food product.
2. Filtration and brushing are types of wet cleaning
method.
3.Soaking is a wet cleaning method.
4.Aspiration is a dry cleaning method.
5.wet cleaning have low cost production because it
produce low effluent.
6.Spray drum washer is an equipment that used in
wet cleaning method.






Post-test
Fill in the blank this statement with the right answer

1. _______ use detergent and water to remove soil and dust
from foods.
2. ________ use principles of different buoyancy to remove
debris from the foods.
3. _________is one of contaminant type of chemical
elements.
4. __________ can detect metal particles.

Wet cleaning
aspiration
pesticides
Magnetic
cleaning
answer
Part A
1. True
2. False
3. True
4. True
5. false
6. True



Part B
1. Wet cleaning
2. Aspiration
3. Pesticides
4. Magnetic cleaning