Scaling-Up Food Processes

摘要

"Scale-up is the task of producing an identical, if possible, process result at a larger production rate than previously accomplished," says Leon Levine of the engineering consulting firm Leon Levine & Associates, Albuquerque, N.M. (phone 505-856-5914). His chapters 10 and 11 in the book Food Processing Operations and Scale-up by K.J. Valentas, L. Levine, and J.P. Clark (Marcel Dekker, 1991) are among the few resources on this topic with a focus on food processing. Levine states that scale-up usually, but not always, requires experimentation at two scales, though not necessarily at the scale that is targeted. The key objective is to identify a criterion that remains constant regardless of scale. An example is the ratio t/m~(2/3), where t is the time required to reach a given internal temperature and m is mass. This ratio remains constant in cooking objects of different mass but essentially the same geometric shape, such as a turkey or roast.