Size reduction is a process of reducing large solid unit masses into small unit masses, coarse particles or fine particles. Size reduction process is also termed as Comminution/Diminution/Pulverizations. Solid pieces of food is reduced by the application of grinding, compression or impact forces. In many food processes it is frequently necessary to reduce the size of solid materials for different purposes.

1. FE-235
Unit Operation in Food Processing
(Size reduction In Food Processing)
Shelke G.N
Assistant Professor
Department of Food Engineering
CFT Ashti,
Maharashtra 414202
Phone: +919561777282
E-mail: shelkeganesh838@gmail.com

2. Processes which depend primarily on physical forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Point to be covered
 Introduction. Principles of size reduction
 Forces Used in Size Reduction
 Energy requirements in Size Reduction
 Size reduction equipment
 Criteria for selection of comminution
processes
 Applications

3. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Introduction
 Size reduction is a process of reducing
large solid unit masses into small unit
masses, coarse particles or fine particles.
 Size reduction process is also termed as
Comminution/Diminution/Pulverizations.
 Solid pieces of food is reduced by the
application of grinding, compression
or impact forces.
 In many food processes it is frequently
necessary to reduce the size of solid
materials for different purposes.

4. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Benefits in food processing:
 Increase in the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the food.
 Increases the rate of drying,
 Increases the rate heating or cooling
 Improves the efficiency and rate of extraction.
 Facilitating mixing and blending
 Facilitates heat exchange, chemical and
biological reactions

5. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Classification of Size Reduction
 Chopping, cutting, slicing and dicing:
 Large to medium
 Stewing steak
 Cheese and
 Sliced fruit for canning
 Medium to small
 Sliced green beans and
 Diced carrot
 Small to granular
 Minced or shredded meat
 Flaked fish or nuts and
 Shredded vegetables

6. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Classification of Size Reduction
 Milling to powders or pastes of increasing fineness
 Grated products
 Spices
 Flours
 Fruit nectars
 Powdered sugar starches
 Smooth pastes
 Emulsification and homogenization
 Milk
Essential oils
 Butter
 Ice
 Cream and margarine

7. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Forces Used in Size Reduction
 The types of forces commonly
used in food processes are
compressive, impact, attrition
or shear and cutting.
 In a comminution operation,
more than one type of force is
usually acting.
 For example, crushing,
grinding, and milling take place
in powdered sugar, flour,
mustard, and cocoa production.

8. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
 Principle and mechanisms of comminution of food
 Compressive forces are used for coarse
crushing of hard materials.
 Impact forces can be regarded as general
purpose forces.
 Shear or attrition forces are applied in
fine pulverization when the size of products
can reach the micrometer range.
 ultra-fine grinding is associated with
processes in which the sub-micron range
of particles is attained.
 cutting gives a definite particle size and
may even produce a definite shape.

9. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
The Mechanism of Size Reduction
 In the grinding process, materials are reduced in size by
fracturing them.
 In the process, the material is stressed by the action of
mechanical moving parts in the grinding machine and
 Initially the stress is absorbed internally by the material as strain
energy.
Stress Strain Fracture in lines of Weakness Released Heat
 Some of the energy is taken up in the creation of new surface, but the greater
part of it is dissipated as heat.

10. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Energy for Size reduction
Energy required depends upon:
1. The hardness of the material
2. The tendency of the material to crack (friability).
 The minimum energy needed to rupture the material.
 Excess energy is lost as heat.
 This loss should be kept as low as practicable.

11. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Energy for Size reduction
 Figures of less than 2% efficiency have been quoted (coulson and
richardson, 1996); thus,
 Grinding is a very inefficient process, perhaps the most inefficient of
the traditional unit operations.
 Much of the input energy is lost in deforming the particles within
their elastic limits and through Inter particle friction.
 A large amount of this wasted energy is released as heat which, in
turn, may be responsible for heat damage of biological materials.

12. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Energy for Size reduction
 Grinding is a very inefficient process and it is important to use
energy as efficiently as possible.
 A three theories depend upon the basic assumption that the energy
required to produce a change dL in a particle of a typical size
dimension L is a simple power function of L:

13. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components

14. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
 The energy required to reduce the size of solid foods is calculated
using one of three equations, as follows:
 Kick’s law
 Rittinger’s law
 Bond’s law

15. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Kick’s Law
 Kick reckoned that the energy required for a given size reduction was
proportional to the size reduction ratio,
 The value of the power n as 1.
 In such a way, by integration of
 Following relation, known as kick’s law is obtained:
 Where x1/x2 is the size reduction ratio.
 Kick’s law has been found to hold more accurately for coarser crushing,
 Where most of the energy is used in causing fracture along existing
Cracks

16. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Rittinger’s Law
 He considered that for the grinding of solids, the energy required
should be proportional to the new surface produced,
 The power n the value of 2,
 Thus obtaining the so-called Rittinger’s law by integration of Eq.
 E is the energy per unit mass required for the production of a new surface by
reduction
 K is called Rittinger’s constant
 x1 is the average initial feed size, and x2 is the average final product size.
 Rittinger’s law has been found to hold better for fine grinding, where a large
increase in surface results.

17. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Bond’s Law and Work Index
 A third version of the comminution law is the one attributed to Bond (1963),
who considered that,
 The work necessary for reduction was inversely proportional to the square root
of the size produced.
 In Bond’s consideration n takes the value of 3/2,
 Where x1 and x2 are measured in micrometers and E in kWh/ton, K = 5Ei,
 Where ei is the bond work index, defined as the energy requires to reduce a unit
mass of material from an infinite particle size to a size such that 80% passes a
100 micrometer sieve.

18. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components

19. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Size reduction equipment
The principal types of size-reduction machines are as follows:
A. Crushers (coarse and fine)
1. Jaw crushers 2. Gyratory crushers 3. Crushing rolls
B. Grinders (intermediate and fine)
1. Hammer mills and impactors 2. Rolling–compression mills 3. Attrition mills
C. Ultrafine grinders
1. Hammer mills with internal classification 2. Fluid–energy mills 3. Agitated
mills 4. Ball mills
D. Cutting machines
1. Knife cutters, dicers and slitters

20. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Crushers
 Jaw and gyratory crushers draw material down into a progressively narrower
space resulting in size reduction.
 However, they are not extensively used in the food industries.
1. Jaw crushers 2. Gyratory crushers

21. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Hammer Mills
 Hammer mill, which contains a high-speed
rotor turning inside a cylindrical case.
 The rotor carries a collar bearing a number
of hammers around its periphery.
 By the rotating action, the hammers swing
through a circular path inside the casing
containing a toughened breaker plate.
 Feed passes into the action zone with the
hammers driving the material against the
breaker plate and forcing it to pas through
a bottom mounted screen by gravity when
the particles attain a proper size

22. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Hammer Mills
 Reduction is mainly due to impact
forces.
 The hammers may be replaced by
knives or other devices to give the mill
the possibility of handling tough, ductile
or fibrous materials.
 The hammer mill is a versatile piece of
equipment that gives high reduction
ratios.
 It handle a wide variety of materials
from hard and abrasive to fibrous and
sticky.
 In the food industry extensive use for
grinding spices, sugar agglomerate, dry
fruits, dry vegetables

23. The important factors affecting the grinding capacity are:
➢ Number of hammers on a rotating shaft
➢ Speed of rotation
➢ Hammer size
➢ Arrangement of hammers
➢ Sharpness
➢ Wear patterns and
➢ Clearance between the tip and screen or striking plate.
Hammer Mills Working

24. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Attrition mill
 Attrition mills are also known as
plate mills or disc pulverizes and are
widely used for small-scale milling.
 These mills use the working
principle of a the shearing and
cutting actions.
 The material is fed in between two
circular plates with the flute or
roughened surface.
 One of the plates is fixed while the
other one has a rotation facility.
 Normally, the material is fed near the
axis of the rotation and is sheared
and crushed.

25. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Attrition mill
 These mills produce a narrow range
of particle sizes.
 The low clearance and higher speed
facilitate the production of finer size
particles.
 The plate mills led to the
development of the colloid mill.
 The main difference between them is
clearance between the plates and the
speed of rotation.
 These mills are extremely used like
shred, curl, granulate, grind, shear,
twist, blend, rub.

26. The important factors affecting the grinding capacity are:
➢ Number of hammers on a rotating shaft
➢ Speed of rotation
➢ Hammer size
➢ Arrangement of hammers
➢ Sharpness
➢ Wear patterns and
➢ Clearance between the tip and screen or striking plate.
Attrition mill Working

27. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Tumbling mill or ball mill
 A tumbling mill is used in many
industries for fine grinding.
 It basically consists of a horizontal,
slow speed, rotating cylinder that is
partially filled with either balls or
rods.
 The cylinder shell is usually made of
steel, lined with carbon-steel plate,
porcelain, silica rock, or rubber.
 The balls are normally made out of
steel or flint stones, while the rods
are usually manufactured with high
carbon steel.

28. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Tumbling mill or ball mill
 The cylinder rotates, the grinding
medium is lifted up the sides of the
cylinder and dropped onto the
material being comminuted, filling
the void spaces between the
medium.
 The grinding medium components
also tumble over each other, exerting
a shearing action on the feed
material.
 This combination of impact and
shearing forces brings about a very
effective size reduction.
 As a tumbling mill basically operates
in a batch manner.

29. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components

30. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Cutting machine
slicing and flaking equipment
dicing equipment
shredding equipment
pulping equipment.

31. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components

32. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components

33. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Size reduction in liquid foods (emulsification and homogenization)

34. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Homogenization
 The unit operation that prevents fat
globules from coalescing into cream
is called homogenization.
 Which is also a way of size
reduction in liquids.
 The liquid formulation is forced
through a small opening at higher
speeds.
 Breaking down the fat or other
globules into smaller ones.

35. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
High-speed mixers
 Edges and tips of the blades in high-speed turbine/ propeller type mixers
impart a shearing action on the low viscous food formulations to
homogenize into a smooth homogeneous emulsion.

36. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Pressure homogenizers
 Pressure homogenization is conventionally
done prior to pasteurization and ultra-high-
temperature (UHT) sterilization.
 Pressure homogenizers use a high pressure
pump, operating at 100–700 bar,
 Which is fitted with a homogenizing
valve(s) (two-stage homogenization) on the
discharge side.
 When liquid is pumped through the small
adjustable gap (< 300 μm) between the
valve and the valve seat.
 The high pressure produces a high liquid
velocity (80–150 m/s).

37. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Pressure homogenizers
 An instantaneous drop in velocity
occurs as the liquid emerges from
the valve.
 This extreme turbulence produces
powerful shearing forces and the
droplets in the dispersed phase
become disrupted.
 The collapse of air bubbles (termed
‘cavitation’) and impact forces
created in some valves by placing a
hard surface (a breaker ring) in the
path of the liquid further reduces the
globule size.

38. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Colloid mills
 Colloid mills are more effective than
pressure homogenizers in creating high
shear and are meant for high viscous
liquids.
 They are essentially vertical disc mills
with a narrow gap between stationary and
rotating discs in the range of 0.05–1.3mm
and rotate at 3000–15000 rpm.
 Numerous designs of disc including flat,
corrugated, conical shapes and even
carborundum are available for different
applications.
 The greater friction created during size
reduction of high-viscous foods may
require these mills to be cooled by
circulating water in the water jacket.

39. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Ultrasonic homogenizers
 A high-frequency sound
wave in the range of 18–30
kHz is used in ultrasonic
homogenizers.
 Cause alternate cycles of
compression and tension in
low-viscosity liquids.
 It is also responsible for
cavitation of air bubbles to
form emulsions with droplet
sizes of 1–2 μm.

40. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
Ultrasonic homogenizers
 This type of homogenizer
is used for the production
of salad creams, ice cream,
synthetic creams, baby
foods and essential oil n
emulsions.

41. Processes which depend primarily forces to accomplish the
desired separation of components
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