Disintegration processes in the food industry

Within the food industry the process of disintegration plays an essential role as it directly influences the product quality as well as the overall yield. Here new and innovative technologies offer promising approaches. With regard to this Fraunhofer UMSICHT and its partners develop and optimize technical devices in combination with specific disintegration processes. Aiming at a complete utilization of raw materials existing processes can significantly be improved and entirely new technical process steps can be established.

In general can be said that the more expensive the raw material for food products, the more worthwhile it is to increase the yield. Examples for this are pomaces of the fruit juice processing as well as press cakes occurring as side streams in the production of cereal drinks that are still containing valuable ingredients. In order to recover these unutilized substances like proteins Fraunhofer UMSICHT has developed a range of potential processes. “We can as an example use an innovative press to recover a greater amount of protein-rich liquid from food raw materials than with comparable technologies,” says Dr. Christoph Glasner, processing group at Fraunhofer UMSICHT. The institute also has methods and equipment for enzymatic fermentation and high-pressure disintegration.

At Anuga FoodTec, the institute will present a system that uses ultrasound to disrupt cells. The innovation here is the high class of power and oscillation amplitude that can be reached within the ultrasound treatment. This is achieved by a patented construction and manufacturing of the ultrasound device which differs from state-of-the-art technologies. As a consequence, a higher power input leads to a better disintegration of the raw material and hence more value can be created. With this technical novelty Fraunhofer UMSICHT is developing innovative process steps that are capable of recovering valuable substances out of fruit pomaces and press cakes produced within various food processing fields.

Concentrating liquids

Valuable residues also accumulate in the beverage industry. Membrane systems can be used to separate, purify or concentrate liquids. “Fraunhofer UMSICHT brings together all the expertise needed for a new type of membrane technology that raises the operating pressure up to 140 bar,” says Dr. Glasner. Conventional systems reach their limit at a maximum pressure of just 64 bar. The new technology thus allows substantially higher dry substance contents to be achieved. In the dairy industry, the institute’s membrane technology is already successfully used to treat whey and to produce concentrated milk. The advantage of this technology is that in principle it can be applied to processes throughout the entire beverage industry.

Sustainability in the food industry

With the project SUSMILK Fraunhofer UMSICHT demonstrated how facilities in the food and beverage industry can become more sustainable through the use of energy and water saving technologies. Wastewater and recycling systems, heat pumps, solar thermal technology and co-generation are just a few of the possible approaches. “Having tested our analytical method in the dairy industry, we have now made it available for use in assessing other companies in the food processing industry,” says Glasner. Each assessment includes individual recommendations about which technologies can save energy and water. “We’ll be happy to advise visitors at Anuga FoodTec in detail about the options that would be best for their facility.”

BioSuck

Food production usually generates large quantities of waste products. These have only limited potential for further use and the required cleaning processes generate significant amounts of wastewater. Fraunhofer UMSICHT developed together with an international working group in the EU project BioSuck a new approach to wastewater and waste product management in the food industry. Their idea involves using vacuum technology to suck off waste products and thus creating significant benefits with regard to cost savings and flexibility in the food production.

Anuga FoodTec
The leading trade fair for the international food and beverage industry takes place in Cologne from March 20–23, 2018. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s shared stand is in Hall 4.2 (Booth E054/E058).