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SUMMARY

Despite the efforts made in plant monitoring and automation, the operation and decision making in most food processing companies is still guided by recipes and protocols usually too rigid to adapt the operation to sudden changes in the production conditions or to process disturbances. Furthermore, such operation policies often lead plants to operate far from optimal conditions both in terms of operation costs (i.e. high energy and water consumptions) and final product quality.

In trying to contribute to a more efficient and flexible operation in food industry, compliant with safety and quality requirements, the main scientific and technological objective of the project is the development and implementation of novel computer aided process engineering tools and methods for optimal on-line quality control of food processes. In particular, research will focus on:

The development of novel sensing techniques which combine previous results and experience in Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Wireless sensor networks (WSN), with efficient modelling and simulation approaches to build up online food quality sensors.

The integration of the sensing techniques into an optimal on-line control framework for quality control in food processing, with particular emphasis in thermal processes

The applicability and advantages of the integral approach to be developed will be evaluated on two classes of thermal processes representative of food storage and preservation, namely refrigeration (storage and transport) and thermal processes in canning factories (cooking and sterilization)