What is the application of ultra-micro pulverisation technology in the food industry?
Ultra-micro-grinding technology is in recent years with the modern chemical, electronics, biology, materials and mineral development and other high-tech development and the rise of high-tech cutting-edge technology for food processing at home and abroad.
Fruit-flavoured herbal tea, freeze-dried fruit powder, ultra-low-temperature frozen turtle powder, kelp powder, pollen and placenta powder, etc. sold in the United States, Japan, most of which are processed by ultra-micro-grinding technology, China also applied this technology to pollen products in the 1990s, and a number of functional foods (such as hawthorn powder, konjac powder, mushroom powder, etc.) with a good taste, a reasonable nutrient ratio, and easy to digest and assimilate, came into being.
Principle of Ultra-micro-grinding Technology
Ultra-micro crushing technology is the use of special crushing equipment, through a certain processing technology, grinding, impact, shear, etc., the material will be more than 3mm particle size of the material crushed to the particle size of 10 ~ 25μm below the micro-fine particles, so that the product has interface activity, presenting a special function.
Compared with the traditional crushing, crushing, grinding and other processing technologies, the particle size of the ultra-fine crushed products is even smaller.
Ultrafine crushing technology is based on the principle of micron technology. With the ultramicrofabrication of substances, the molecular arrangement, electron distribution structure and crystal structure of the surface changes, resulting in the surface small size effect, quantum effect and macroscopic quantum tunneling effect, which is not available in bulk (particle) materials, thus making the ultramicrofabricated products and macro-particles compared with the excellent physical, chemical and interfacial properties of the surface.
What are the advantages of ultra-fine pulverisation?
2.1 High speed and low temperature pulverisation
Ultra-micro-grinding technology using supersonic airflow crushing, cold slurry crushing and other methods, in the crushing process does not produce local overheating phenomenon, and can even be carried out in a low-temperature state, crushing can be completed in an instant, and thus maximise the retention of the powder’s bio-active ingredients, conducive to the production of high-quality products as required.
2.2 Fine particle size, uniform distribution
As a result of the use of airflow supersonic crushing, so that the distribution of raw material external force is very uniform. The setting of grading system not only strictly limits the large particles, but also avoids over-crushing, and can get the ultra-fine powder with uniform particle size distribution, which largely increases the specific surface area of the micro-powder, so that the adsorption, dissolution, etc. are also increased accordingly.
2.3 Saving raw materials, improve the utilisation rate
Therefore, the ultra-fine crushing technology is very suitable for the crushing of rare materials.
2.4 Reduce pollution
Ultra-micro-grinding is carried out in a closed system, not only to avoid contamination of the surrounding environment by micro-powder, but also to prevent airborne dust contamination of the product, the use of this technology in food and health care products, can control micro-organisms and dust contamination of the product.
2.5 Improve the chemical reaction speed of fermentation and enzymatic process
Because the raw materials after ultra-micro-grinding, has a great specific surface, in the biological, chemical reaction process, the reaction contact area greatly increased, thus can improve the fermentation, enzymatic process reaction speed, in the production of saving time, improve efficiency.
2.6 Conducive to the absorption of food nutrients
Research shows that after the ultra-micro-grinding of food, because of its particle size is very small, nutrients do not have to go through a long journey can be released, and micro-powder due to the small particle size and easier adsorption in the small intestine wall, accelerating the rate of nutrient release, so that the food in the small intestine has enough time to be absorbed.
What are the applications in the food industry?
In the field of food processing, powders with a particle size of less than 25μm are usually called ultrafine powders, and the method of preparing ultrafine powders is called ultrafine grinding technology.
Food commonly used in the ultra-fine grinding technology is mainly airflow, high-frequency vibration, rotary ball (rod) mill, rotary roller and so on. Among them, the gas flow type ultramicrocrushing technology is more advanced, the use of gas through the pressure of the nozzle jet to produce intense impact, collision and friction and other forces to achieve the crushing of materials.
3.1 Classification of the application of ultra-micro-grinding technology in the food industry
Although the introduction of the food superfine powder soon, but has been in the spices, beverages, canned food, frozen food, baked goods, health food and other aspects of the show their hands, and the effect is better.
3.2 Application of ultra-micro-grinding technology in food processing
3.2.1 Soft drinks processing
At present, the use of air microcrushing technology has been developed soft drinks have powdered tea, soybean solid drinks and ultra-micro bone meal formulated calcium-rich drinks and so on.
Tea culture in China has a long history, the traditional tea is brewed with boiling water tea, the human body does not absorb a large number of tea nutrients, most of the proteins, carbohydrates and some minerals, vitamins, etc. are stored in the tea residue. If the tea leaves at room temperature, dry state made of tea powder (particle size <5μm), can improve the human body to its nutrient absorption rate.
Tea powder added to other foods, but also the development of new tea products. Vegetable protein drinks are protein-rich plant seeds and kernels as raw materials, by soaking, grinding, homogenisation and other operations made of milky products.
Grinding, can be used to grind rubber mill particle size 5 ~ 8μm, and then homogenised to 1 ~ 2μm. In this particle size, the solid particles of protein and fat particles become smaller, thus preventing the protein sinking and fat floating.
3.2.2 Fruit and vegetable processing
Vegetables are ground into micropaste at low temperatures to preserve the nutrients, and their fibre texture is also improved by micronisation. Such as people generally regarded as waste of persimmon leaves rich in rutin, choline, flavonoid glycosides, carotene, polysaccharides, amino acids, vitamin C and a variety of trace elements, if the ultra-micro-grinding of persimmon leaves made of fine powder, can be used as a food additive made of noodles, bread and other types of persimmon health food, can also be made of persimmon leaves health tea.
3.2.3 Grocery processing
The ultra-micro crushed wheat bran powder, soybean micronutrient powder and so on added to the flour, can be made into high-fibre or high-protein flour. Rice, wheat and other grains processed into ultra-micro rice flour, due to the fine particle size, the surface state of the starch is activated, it will be filled or mixed into the food with easy to cook, flavour and texture of good performance.
Soya beans are processed into soya milk powder after ultra-micro-grinding, which can remove the fishy taste. Mung beans, red beans and other beans can also be made after the ultra-micro-grinding of high-quality bean paste, soy milk and other products.
3.2.4 Aquatic products processing
Spirulina, pearls, turtles, sharks and other cartilage ultra-fine powder has unique advantages. Such as pearl powder is traditionally processed after more than ten hours of ball milling to make the granularity of hundreds of mesh, but if the -67 ℃ low temperature and strict purification of airflow conditions in the instantaneous crushing of pearls, you can get the average particle size of 10μm below the ultra-micro pearl powder.
Compared with the traditional processing, this method fully retains the effective components of the pearl, calcium content of up to 42%, can be used as medicinal food or food additives made of calcium supplements.
3.2.5 Functional food processing
Nowadays, the ideas of ‘medicine and food come from the same source’ and ‘food therapy is more important than medicine therapy’ have been generally accepted by people. For the production of functional foods, ultra-micro pulverisation technology mainly plays a role in the preparation of base materials (such as dietary fibre, fat substitutes, etc.).
Ultrafine powder can improve the bioavailability of functional substances, reduce the amount of base material in the food, and the slow-release effect of microparticles in the body can prolong the efficacy. In the process of developing solid honey, the use of colloid mills for ultra-fine grinding of ingredients can increase the fineness of the product. In addition, the use of ultra-fine bone powder, shrimp powder calcium supplement, ultra-fine kelp powder iodine supplement, the human body is easy to absorb and simple to implement.
3.2.6 Spices, seasonings processing
Ultrafine grinding technology as a new food processing methods, can make the traditional processing of spices, flavouring products (mainly refers to fermented solid products of beans) of higher quality.
Spices, seasonings in the huge porosity generated after the particle caused by the collection of pore cavity can absorb and hold the aroma, the taste of the long-lasting, more intense aroma and taste.
At the same time, the ultra-micro-grinding technology can make the traditional spices finely crushed into uniform particle size, good dispersion performance of the excellent ultra-micro-particles, mobility, dissolution speed and absorption rate have increased greatly, the taste effect has been very obvious improvement, the ultra-micro-grinding method of processing of spices, seasonings, flavouring strength is several times or even more than ten times that of the traditional processing methods.
For products with high organoleptic requirements, the spices after ultra-fine grinding particle size is very fine, up to 300 to 500 mesh, the naked eye can not be observed particles exist, eliminating the production of black spots in the product, improving the appearance of the product quality. At the same time, the corresponding equipment of the ultra-fine grinding technology both coating, emulsification, solid emulsification, modification and other physicochemical functions, for the development of flavouring products to create a realistic prospect. It can be said that the ultra-fine grinding technology will bring revolutionary changes to the traditional Chinese flavouring products.