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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #319250
Research Project: New Sustainable Processing Technologies to Produce Healthy, Value-Added Foods from Specialty Crops

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Food peeling: conventional and new approaches

Author
item Pan, Zhongli
item LI, XUAN - University Of California
item VENKITASAMY, CHANDRASEKAR - University Of California
item SHEN, YI - University Of California

Submitted to: Elsevier
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2015
Publication Date: 12/1/2015
Citation: Pan, Z., Li, X., Venkitasamy, C., Shen, Y. 2015. Food peeling: conventional and new approaches. In: Geoffrey, W.S., editor. Reference Module in Food Science. Elsevier. p. 1-9. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100596-5.03091-2.

Interpretive Summary: Peeling is a widely used process in food industry to produce various premium quality products from fruits and vegetables. This chapter briefly describes a number of peeling techniques, fundamental principles, and practical problems associated with the conventional peeling methods. Because of the water- and energy-intensive nature of the peeling systems, the limited availability of resources and escalating cost, and increased public environmental concerns, new challenges demand for novel and sustainable peeling processes that are technically feasible and economically viable to processors. Major considerations in developing alternative peeling method have been focusing on improving the quality and safety of peeled products, enhancing productivity and efficiency, minimizing peel losses, ensuring environmental and consumer friendliness, and reducing pollution and wastewater disposal problems, and lowering the overall cost of peeling process. The impact of reduction in water, chemical, and energy usage in new peeling process can potentially be huge both environmentally and economically.

Technical Abstract: Peeling is an important unit operation in food processing that prepares fruits and vegetables for subsequent processes through removal of inedible or undesirable rind or skin. This chapter covers an exhaustive discussion on advancement in peeling technologies of fruits and vegetables from different aspects, including the underlying principles, operational procedures, quality controls, energy and water efficiency, and a case study of peeling process. The focus is on commercially available and emerging peeling technologies that are developed to improve the peeling efficiency and sustainability while delivering the finished product with high quality and safety.