In today's food and beverage industry, instrumentation plays an indispensable role. From the screening of raw materials, production process monitoring, and then to the quality of the finished product testing, each link is inseparable from all kinds of precision instrumentation help, they are like “eyes” and “skillful hands”, to protect the food and beverage safety, quality and efficient production.
The raw material gatekeeper: accurate screening of high-quality cornerstones
In the raw material link, instrumentation plays the initial gatekeeper's role. Agricultural raw materials, for example, near-infrared spectral analyzer can quickly detect grains, fruits, vegetables and other water, protein, fat, sugar and other key ingredients content.
For a fruit juice producer, accurate determination of the sugar content of fruit raw materials through the instrumentation can ensure that the purchased fruit meets the juicing standards, but also based on the data to reasonably allocate the sweetness of different batches of juice, to avoid the differences in raw materials lead to the finished product flavor variations.
At the same time, the metal detector is also crucial to keenly capture the metal impurities mixed into the raw materials, to prevent them from entering the subsequent processing process, to prevent mechanical damage and food safety hazards, to ensure the smooth operation of the production line.
Production control: fine sculpture quality details
Into the production process, temperature, pressure, flow and other parameters of the precise control is the core. Food and beverages need to go through cooking, fermentation, sterilization and other process steps, automated temperature control instrumentation real-time monitoring and control of reaction kettles, ovens, sterilizing pots and other equipment within the temperature. For example, yogurt fermentation, a small temperature deviation may change the activity of lactic acid bacteria, affecting the texture, taste and shelf life of yogurt, precision temperature control instrumentation can control the temperature error in a very small range, to protect the fermentation quality and stability.
Pressure instrumentation shines in the production of carbonated beverages, accurately controlling the pressure of carbon dioxide charging to ensure that each bottle of beverage bubble content is uniform, and the right amount of bubbles come out at the moment of opening the bottle, bringing a great drinking experience. The flow meter is like a “housekeeper” on the production line, precisely adjusting the flow ratio of raw materials, water, additives, etc., to ensure that the product formula is strictly enforced, avoiding waste of materials or imbalance of ratios.
For example, flow sensors play a key role in juice production lines. An emerging juice brand in the mix of juice, relying on high-precision flow sensors, in strict accordance with the recipe for the deployment of different juices, pure water and additives in proportion, so that the product flavor is always the same, and quickly win the favor of consumers, in the highly competitive market to stand firm.
The finished product quality inspection: strictly guard the safety of the tip of the tongue
At the stage of finished product inspection, instrumentation is the ultimate “judge” of quality. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC) can analyze additives, pesticide residues, flavor substances and other subtle components in food. Preservatives in beverages and illegal pigments in fruit juices have nothing to hide under these instruments, strictly guarding the red line of food safety.
In addition, the texture instrumentation can simulate the human mouth chewing, from the hardness, elasticity, viscosity and other multi-dimensional quantification of food taste, crispy potato chips, bread fluffy, jelly Q bouncy, can be measured by data to help companies optimize the texture of the product based on consumer preferences. Packaging sealing tester to ensure that food packaging is tight, to prevent oxygen, water vapor intrusion caused by food spoilage, to extend the shelf life.
Conclusion
With the development of science and technology, instrumentation is more and more intelligent, portable, high precision. In the future, the food and beverage industry will rely on instrumentation innovation to new heights, and continue to present more delicious, safe, diversified products for the consumer table, in the market competition on the tip of the tongue, to win the future with precision technology.
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