17IBT201 – FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING

UNIT 1:
FOOD PRE-PROCESSING &
CONVERSION METHODS

Part 2 – SIZE REDUCTION

or COMMINUTION
 Size Reduction
Purpose
• Application of grinding, compression or impact
forces
– Liquid  Homogenization / Emulsification
• To increase in the surface-area-to-volume ratio
– drying, heat transfer, extraction
• Combined with screening
– Sorting,
– Mixing of ingredients
• To obtain predetermined range of particle sizes
• No effect on Shelf Life – improves quality &
suitability of food 2
Size Reduction
Purpose
Some Applications
• Milling of cereal grains to obtain flour
• Fine grinding (refining) of chocolate mass
• Flaking of soybeans prior to solvent
extraction
• Cutting of vegetables and fruits to desired
shapes (cubes, strips, slices…)
• Fine mashing of baby food
• Homogenization of milk and cream.

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Size Reduction
THEORY
• Forces applied (all types)
– compression forces
– impact forces
– shearing (or attrition) forces
• Stress – Strain curve
– Explain type of material
– Stress applied to strain absorbed
• Moisture content
– High  agglomeration may block the mill
– Low  Fine dusts  Health hazard, fire hazard

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Size Reduction THEORY
Stress – Strain Curve
1 = hard, strong, brittle
material;
2 = hard, strong, ductile
material;
3 = soft, weak, ductile
material
4 = soft, weak brittle material

E = elastic stress limit;

Y = yield point;
B = breaking point;
O–E = elastic region;
E–Y = inelastic deformation;
Y–B = region of ductility

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Size Reduction THEORY
ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK
• Energy required to reduce size of food
– Kick’s law
– Rittinger’s law
– Bond’s law
• Developed from studies of hard materials (coal and
limestone) - Deviation is likely with many foods.
• Kick’s law: coarse grinding (relatively small increase
in surface area per unit mass)
• Rittinger’s law: fine grinding (much larger increase
in surface area)
• Bond’s law: intermediate between these two
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Size Reduction THEORY
ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK
• Kick’s law:
• Statement: energy required to reduce the size of particles
is proportional to the ratio of the initial size of a typical
dimension (for example the diameter of the pieces) to the
final size of that dimension

E (J)= the energy required per mass of feed,

KK = Kick’s constant, d1 (m) = the average initial size of pieces,
d2 (m) = the average size of ground particles.
• d1/d2 = size reduction ratio (RR)
– used to evaluate the relative performance of different types of
equipment.
– RR for Coarse grinding = below 8:1,
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– RR for fine grinding = exceed 100:1
Size Reduction THEORY
ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK
• Rittinger’s law:
• Statement: energy required for size reduction is
proportional to the change in surface area of the pieces
of food

• KR = Rittinger’s constant

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Size Reduction THEORY
ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK
• Bond’s law:
• Statement:

• W (J/kg) = Bond Work Index (40–80 kJ/kg for hard foods)

• d1 (m) = diameter of sieve aperture that allows 80% of the
mass of the feed to pass
• d2 (m) = diameter of sieve aperture that allows 80% of the
mass of the ground material to pass.

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Size Reduction THEORY
ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK
Pb.1.
Food is milled from 6 mm to 0.0012 mm using a 10
hp motor. Would this motor be adequate to reduce
the size of the particles to 0.0008 mm?
Assume Rittinger’s equation (1 hp=745.7 W).
Sol. Rittinger’s equation

KR = 0.0089
To produce particles of size 0.0008 mm

Motor is unsuitable & an increase in power of 50% is required. 10

Size Reduction THEORY
ENERGY REQUIRED TO BREAK
Pb.2.
Food is milled from 6 mm to 0.0012 mm using a
18 hp motor of which mill utilizes only 7.457
kW. Can we use the same motor to reduce the
size of the particles to 0.0008 mm?
Assume Rittinger’s equation (1 hp=745.7 W).

Ans: Yes
Calculations – same as Pb. 1

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Size Reduction THEORY
Pb.3.
Sugar crystals were ground from an average
Sauter diameter of 500 μm to powder with an
average Sauter diameter of 100 μm. The net
energy consumption was 0.5 kWh/ton. What
would be the net energy consumption for
grinding the crystals to 50 μm powder:
a. according to Rittinger’s law
b. according to Kick’s law.

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Size Reduction THEORY
Sol. E = 0.5 kWh/ton
d1 = 500 um, d2 = 100 um, New d2 = 50 um

a) Rittinger’s Law:

KR = 62.5 kWh.μm/ton

E (50um) = 1.125 kWh/ton

b) Kick’s Law:

KK = 0.3107 kWh/ton

E (50um) = 0.715 kWh/ton 13

Size Reduction
EQUIPMENTS
• Fibrous foods • Dry foods
– Slicing & Flaking o Ball mill
– Dicing o Disc mill
Decreasing o Hammer mill
– Shredding Product size o Roller mill
– Pulping

• Liquid foods (Homogenizers)

– High speed mixers
– Pressure homogenizers
– Colloid mills
– Ultrasonic
– Hydroshear

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS
Fibrous foods
• Slicing and flaking equipment
cheeses, pizza toppings, cooked meats, cucumber and tomato, bread

• food is held against the slicer

blades by centrifugal force and
each slice falls away freely

• eliminates problem- caused

compression of the food and
damage as it passed between
the blades

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS
• Dicing equipment
• Vegetables, fruits and meats
• First sliced and then cut into strips by rotating blades.
• Strips are fed to a second set of rotating knives which
operate at right angles to the first set and cut the strips
into cubes
• Shredding equipment
– Modified hammer mill: knives are used instead of
hammers
– Squirrel cage disintegrator:
– Two concentric cylindrical cages inside a casing. They
are fitted with knife blades along their length and the two
cages rotate in opposite directions. Food is subjected to
powerful shearing and cutting forces as it passes
between them. 16
Dicing Machine

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18
Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

• Pulping equipment
– combination of compression and shearing forces
• juice extraction from fruits or vegetables
• cooking oil production
• producing pureed and pulped meats
– rotary fruit crusher
• Cylindrical metal screen fitted internally with high-
speed rotating brushes or paddles
• Pulp is forced through the perforations of the screen
by the brushes
• soft fruits are heated if necessary to soften the tissues,
• Skins, stalks and seeds are discarded from the end of
the screen
– roller presses and screw presses 19
Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS
Size reduction of dry foods
• Ball mills
• Slowly rotating, horizontal steel cylinder which is
half filled with steel balls 2.5–15 cm in diameter.
• At low speeds or when small balls are used,
shearing forces predominate. With larger balls or at
higher speeds, impact forces become more
important.
• They are used to produce fine powders, such as
food colourants.
• Rod mill - modification of the ball mill - has rods
instead of balls to overcome problems associated
with the balls sticking in adhesive foods.
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21
Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS
Disc mills
– employ shearing forces for fine grinding or shearing and
impact forces for coarser grinding
• Single-disc mills
– Food passes through an adjustable gap between a
stationary casing and a grooved disc, which rotates at
high speed
• Double-disc mills
– Two discs that rotate in opposite directions to produce
greater shearing forces
• Pin & disc mills
– Intermeshing pins fixed either to the single disc and
casing or to double discs.
– improve the effectiveness of milling by creating additional
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impact and shearing forces
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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Hammer mills
• Horizontal cylindrical chamber, lined with a
toughened steel breaker plate.
• A high-speed rotor inside the chamber is fitted with
swinging hammers along its length
• Food is disintegrated mainly by impact forces as
the hammers drive it against the breaker plate.
• Hammer mills are widely used for crystalline and
fibrous materials including spices and sugar.

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Hammer mill

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Roller mills
• widely used to mill wheat
• Two or more steel rollers revolve towards each
other and pull particles of food through the ‘nip’ (the
space between the rollers)
• Force acting  Compression
• If the rollers are rotated at different speeds 
additional shearing forces
• The size of the nip is adjustable for different foods
and overload springs protect against accidental
damage from metal or stones.

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Roller mill

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 Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Size reduction in liquid foods (emulsification and

homogenisation)
• Emulsification is the formation of a stable emulsion by
the intimate mixing of two or more immiscible liquids
• Homogenisation is the reduction in size (0.5–30 um),
and hence the increase in number, of solid or liquid
particles in the dispersed phase by the application of
intense shearing forces.
• Change the functional properties or eating quality of
foods and have little or no effect on nutritional value
or shelf life.
• margarine and low-fat spreads, salad cream and
mayonnaise, sausage meat, ice cream and cakes.
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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

• Naturally occurring proteins and

Phospholipids act as emulsifying agents
• In food processing synthetic agents (including
esters of glycerol or sorbitan esters of fatty
acids) are more effective and these are
normally used.
• The two types of liquid–liquid emulsion are:
– oil in water (o/w) (for example milk)
– water in oil (w/o) (for example margarine).

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

• High-speed mixers
• To pre-mix emulsions of low-viscosity liquids.
• Operate by a shearing action on the food at the
edges and tips of the blades.

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 Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS
• high-pressure pump,
• Pressure homogenisers operating at 10 000–70 000
kPa, which is fitted with a
homogenising valve on the
discharge side

• extreme conditions of
turbulence produce
powerful shearing forces
and the droplets in the
dispersed phase become
disrupted.

• second similar valve is

• used before pasteurisation / UHT of
then used to break up the
milk, and in the production of salad
creams, ice cream and some soups clusters of globules
and sauces. 31
Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Colloid mills
• Colloid mills are essentially disc mills with a small
clearance (0.05–1.3 mm) between a stationary disc
and a vertical disc rotating at 3000–15 000 rpm.
• high shearing forces and are more effective than
pressure homogenisers
• Numerous designs of disc, including flat, corrugated
and conical shapes, are available for different
applications.
• Greater friction created in viscous foods may require
the mills to be cooled by recirculating water.

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Ultrasonic homogenisers
• use high-frequency sound waves (18–30 kHz) to
cause alternate cycles of compression and tension in
low-viscosity liquids and cavitation of air bubbles, to
form emulsions with droplet sizes of 1–2 um.
• pumped at pressures of 340–1400 kPa.
• vibrating metal blade (US producer)
• production of salad creams, ice cream, synthetic
creams, baby foods and essential oil emulsions

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Size Reduction EQUIPMENTS

Ultrasonic homogenisers

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