Introduction to Food Engineering, Sixth Edition brings a much more in-depth and didactic presentation of  classic food engineering topics, such as the relationship of engineering to the chemistry, microbiology, nutrition and processing of foods.  The book brings more quantitative analyses and problem-solving content, adding more descriptive topics at the end of each chapter to facilitate teaching and student comprehension. Topics cover engineering fundamentals, principles of food processing and preservation operations, solids handling, microbial bioreactions, inactivation and inhibition of microorganisms, and a brief Introduction to economic considerations and regulations. This approach facilitates comprehensive learning that has proven valuable beyond the classroom as a lifetime professional reference.

While mathematically sophisticated methods can be used to better understand and improve processes, the nonlinear nature of food processing models can make their dynamic optimization a daunting task. With contributions from a virtual who s who in the food processing industry, Optimization in Food Engineering evaluates the potential uses and limitations of optimization techniques for food processing, including classical methods, artificial intelligence-genetic algorithms, multi-objective optimization procedures, and computational fluid dynamics.

The book begins by delineating the fundamentals and methods for analytical and numerical procedures. It then covers optimization techniques and how they specifically apply to food processing. The final section digs deep into fundamental food processes and provides detailed explanation and examples from the most experienced and published authors in the field. This includes a range of processes from optimization strategies for improving the performance of batch reactors to the optimization of conventional thermal processing, microwave heating, freeze drying, spray drying, and refrigeration systems, to structural optimization techniques for developing beverage containers, optimization approaches for impingement processing, and optimal operational planning methodologies. Each chapter presents the required parameters for the given process with the optimization procedure to apply.

An increasing part of the food processor s job is to optimize systems to squeeze more dollars out of overhead to offset rising utility and transportation costs. Logically combining optimization techniques from many sources into a single volume focused on food production processes, this book provides real solutions to increases in energy, healthcare, and product liability costs that impact the bottom line in food production.