Food processing is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. It is the bridge between the raw food produced by farmers and the eatables found in markets. As per the statistics, the food and grocery market in India ranks sixth globally and food processing contributes about 32% to the food industry. Food processing has great potential in India because of the different types of crops grown. Therefore boiler for the food industry play a vital role in the progress of the sector. Food processing in India can be categorized into 3 types, let us have a look at it.
Primary processing:
The primary type of food processing includes cleaning the raw food such as crops, vegetables, livestock, etc.
Secondary processing:
Secondary processing of food includes improvising and refining food into consumable quality. This stage consists of milling various crops and oilseeds to wheat, rice, edible oil, etc.
Tertiary processing:
The tertiary processing stage is the food processing known in general. Processing of ready-to-eat food, confectionery items, soft drinks, etc. falls under this category.
Steam Boilers in Food Industry:
Boilers generate steam that aids in the cooking, sanitizing, processing, and packaging in the food industry. Processing in this industry takes place by direct heating or heating through hot water. Food processing industries generally use coals, natural gas, liquid fuel, and biomass as the fuels in the steam boiler.
The food processing sector requires various types of steam for different purposes. Here are some of the steam types that aids the processing of food,
Plant steam:
Plant steam, in other words, is the usual steam generated in the boilers by the burning of fuels. Plant steam does not come in direct contact with the food items and is instead used for indirect heating purposes.
Culinary steam:
This type of steam is administered directly to the food, and therefore, it is purified before utilization.
Pure steam:
Pure steam is free of any contaminated particles and is generally used for sterilization and disinfection purposes.
Boilers for the Food Industry are generally used to process food, meat, livestock, vegetables, beverages, bakery and confectionery, and food packaging.
Role of Steam Boilers in the Food Processing Sector:
As steam is paramount for the food industry, steam boilers serve various purposes in the sector. Some of them are as follows:
Avoiding the possibility of Bacteria:
Raw food may contain harmful bacteria or contamination that may pose a threat to food-related illness. Therefore, the bacterial content in raw food is destroyed with the pasteurization process from steam.
Cooking and Drying:
Steam or hot water from the boiler helps tremendously for cooking. It ensures that the food is of high quality, free of harmful substances, and easily digestible. The drying process requires high-temperature steam.
Sterilizing of process plant:
Steam is vital for cooking as well as for sterilizing and disinfecting the process plant and vessels or equipment used for processing to ensure a clean and safe operational cycle.
Packaging:
Steam is also required for the food packaging process. For packaging, steam is mainly used for canned preserves that are exposed to high-pressure steam to ensure that the can and the product sealed inside are sterilized.
Requirements of Boiler for Food Industry:
Although steam plays an integral role in food processing, its demand varies for different operations. As steam boilers require a considerable amount of downtime for heating and cooling, many process plants chose to keep the boiler functioning despite minimal steam requirements. It results in reduced energy efficiency and increased fuel demands, and greenhouse emissions.
Here are some of the main requirements of the steam boiler for food industry:
High Energy Efficiency:
As mentioned, due to long operational cycles and the challenge of downtime, boilers lose their energy efficiency. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the boiler selected for food processing plants ensures high energy and water efficiency.
Sustainability:
Industries with operation cycles of long duration face the difficulty of higher greenhouse emission that causes harm to the environment and defies the environmental law codes. Steam boilers with assured sustainability greatly help in maintaining and reducing harmful emissions.
Sturdy to handle fluctuating demands:
Boilers that can adapt to downtime quickly for fluctuating heating and cooling demands may prove a valuable asset for the food industry. It would avoid excess use and cost of fuels, increase the boiler efficiency and reduce greenhouse emissions that would save the annual budget of the process plant.
Easy to Maintain:
It is undeniably important that the boilers for the food industry are safe, reliable, and easy to maintain for the longer life span of the system.
The food industry is emerging as one of the dominant industries in the world, and therefore the boilers for the food industry must be of the highest quality and efficiency for smooth processing operations.
Rakhoh Industries, being a trusted boiler manufacturer in India, has delivered their efficient and durable Solid-fuel fired boilers, oil and gas-fired boilers, and multi-fuel boilers in various food industries. Some of our esteemed clients from the food processing sector include Mapro, Madhushree Foods, Nakoda Food Processing, Rama Agro Food Pvt. Ltd., Modern Agro Food, and many others.