The food and beverage industry continues to expand and diversify, especially as consumers look for more healthful products that fit both their lifestyle and budget. Companies must find ways to create and market products to differentiate them from their many competitors while ensuring their goods have the taste, freshness and nutrients on which customers have come to rely.
A common method food processing and manufacturing companies utilize to efficiently, cost-effectively and safely produce their goods is high-pressure homogenization. It not only reduces particle size through forces including high pressure, shear, turbulence, acceleration and impact but also allows for the stable and consistent production of emulsions, suspensions and other commodities that necessitate a liquid suspended in another liquid.
Though one of the most well-known uses of homogenization in the food and beverage industry is for milk, it is also widely used in the manufacture of sauces, spreads, salad dressings, fruit juices and concentrates, fish and meat paté, sweeteners, baby food, egg product, other dairy products and more. The homogenization pressures used for these products typically range between 20 and 60 MPa, but some homogenizers can reach pressures of up to 400 MPa. This magnitude of pressure leads to microbial and enzyme inactivation, which enhances the safety and shelf life of perishable foods while reducing the thermal effects on the foods’ functional and sensory qualities.
Once a company achieves its ideal product, the product needs to be reproduced on a larger scale without losing the characteristics that make it desirable by customers. If it doesn’t offer the same taste and texture on a regular basis, the manufacturer may not only lose customers and their funds but also obtain a damaged reputation.
Food homogenizers help deliver a product with uniform texture, flavoring and taste through a scalable and cost-effective process that allows for a longer period of freshness than food comprised of larger particles. The smaller the particles, the longer the structure of the product can be maintained. Food homogenizers’ ability to use pressure instead of heat preserves critical nutritional components naturally found in a food, enabling them to be available for consumption.
Although high-pressure homogenization may potentially replace thermal methods of food preparation, it does not effectively produce solid foods or ones formed from large particles. Also, because it uses force instead of thermal action, homogenization does not sterilize foods or beverages, requiring it to be accomplished through a separate process.
BEE International: Help in Finding the Best Food Homogenizer
The key to purchasing the right food homogenizer for your business needs is selecting one that can achieve consistent particle size distribution on a scalable basis. At BEE International, our equipment can engineer particle sizes at or below 100 nm, a benefit favorable for most any product in the food and beverage industry. Our products are trusted by researchers and laboratory managers around the world, and our unparalleled customer service will make finding the right product a breeze for companies of all sizes.
Contact us today to find out more about how BEE International can aid your particle size reduction process.
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