This book is designed to explain and illustrate how food processing operations can be made more efficient and profitable through the application of computers in the laboratory, pilot plant, and production plant floor of industrial food processing plants. It is intended to provide a sufficient understanding of how computer system concepts can be applied to food processing operations to permit technical managers, with the assistance of food engineering professionals, to identify, develop, and implement computer applications to meet their own specific needs. The book should also serve as a useful text or guide for students in food engineering or food technology seeking a practical course on food process automation at the undergraduate-graduate level interface. The material covered includes the use of microcomputers for automated data acquisition and analysis in the laboratory and pilot plant, followed by the use of computer-based process control systems on the production plant floor. Higher-level applications are also included to illustrate the use of engineering software containing mathematical models for computer simulation, optimization, and intelligent on-line control of specific food processing unit operations. In each chapter, an introduction to the theory of the application in simple lay terms is followed by case study examples of actual project installations or demonstration projects that illustrate the application in a specific food processing situation. Some of the unit operations covered include thermal processing in retorts, heat treatments in aseptic processing, freezing, dehydration, evaporation, and fermentation. Product examples span across food industry subsectors from dairy products to distilled spirits.

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