Fundamentals and Operations in Food Process Engineering

This revised edition of Fundamentals and Operations in Food Process Engineering has been adequately expanded with four new chapters covering distillation, leaching and extraction, high-temperature food processing, and conveying systems in food processing. It now features five main sections: fundamentals in food process engineering, mechanical operations in food processing, thermal operations in food processing, mass transfer operations in food processing, and high-temperature and conveying operations in food processing. Chapters in the second edition address basic engineering principles and applications in food processing, focusing on specific analytical problems and on comprehensive, systematic, and analytical approaches leading to designing various food processing systems. The book includes approximately 250 worked-out examples and 185 exercise problems to enhance students' understanding and interest.

Key features:

• Provides balanced coverage of fundamentals and quantitative analyses for comprehensive learning.
• Presents elaborate discussions on all the unit operations in food processing with illustrations and figures.
• Includes conveying systems and high-temperature processing techniques for wider coverage.
• Provides solutions for numerical problems without using complex charts and figures.
• Discusses numerical and exercise problems that have practical relevance to food processing operations.

This revised volume with additional chapters has been designed for undergraduate and graduate students of any branch of Food Science and Process Engineering, Dairy Science and Engineering, Food Technology, and allied engineering disciplines pursuing minors in Food Process Engineering and Technology, as well as for industry professionals and practising engineers who desire a good understanding of the fundamental principles of process engineering and unit operations associated with food processing systems.

Susanta Kumar Das is a former professor in the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, India. He also completed a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science from the same institution. He earned his doctoral degree from IIT Kharagpur, India. Dr. Das worked at IIT Kharagpur for over 35 years, where his teaching focused on different aspects of Post‑Harvest Engineering, Dairy and Food Engineering, and Food Process Engineering for undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students.

He was one of the founding faculty members of the biotechnology and biochemical engineering discipline in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. Additionally, he served as a visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, Howrah, India, in the School of Community Science and Technology for more than two years, teaching master’s degree students in Food Processing and Nutrition Science.

Dr. Das is also associated with the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI), Narendrapur Campus, Kolkata, India, as a guest faculty member in the School of Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) for over five years, where he taught postgraduate diploma students in Post-Harvest and Food Process Engineering.

He has supervised 14 doctoral students and over 60 postgraduate students in post‑harvest engineering and food process engineering. Dr. Das has published more than 80 research papers in peer‑reviewed international and national journals, along with numerous publications in national and international conference proceedings. He has contributed several chapters to various edited books.

He is a life member of several professional organizations in India and has served as a reviewer for numerous international journals in his fields of expertise.

Madhusweta Das is a former associate professor and adjunct professor in the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, India. Dr. Das earned her bachelor’s degree with honors in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta. She subsequently earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Dr. Das also served as a guest faculty member at the School of Community Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, Howrah, India, for over a year. Currently, she is associated with the Indian Institute of Packaging, Kolkata, India, where she has been a guest faculty member for over six years.

She has more than 38 years of experience in teaching and research, with undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students across several engineering disciplines, including Aquacultural, Chemical, Biochemical, Biotechnology, Dairy and Food, Post-Harvest, and Food Process Engineering.

She has approximately 130 publications in national and international refereed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Dr. Das holds five patents, notably on edible plastics, functional soft fruit-based confections, functional soups, hydroxyapatite, and fish scale-derived glue. Her research interests include Macromolecular Science and Technology, Edible and Biodegradable Plastics, Bio-Surfactants, Functional Foods, Food Waste Utilization, and Food Packaging.

Dr. Das has supervised seven doctoral students and more than 40 postgraduate students in Food Process Engineering and Aquacultural Engineering. She is a life member of several professional organizations in India and has also been a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

She has received several awards and recognitions, and two of her doctoral students have received prestigious awards from IFT, USA, for their outstanding research work.