FST11

FOOD ENGINEERING
T S U - C O S - F T D e p a r t m e n t | 2 n d S e m e s t e r | AY 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4 |
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 PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF FOOD
MATERIALS
Scope: The study of the principles and measurement of various physical
properties of foods that are important in handling, preparing, processing,
preserving, packaging, storing, and distributions of foods.

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COURSE OBJECTIVE:

▪To define and describe physical properties of foods that measure the overall
quality of fresh and prepared foods.
▪To gain knowledge and develop skills in identifying and quantifying physical
properties and their interrelationships.
▪To understand the significance and importance of physical properties and their
roles in food processing and food quality.

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“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and can
express it in numbers, you know something about it; and when
you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers,
your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may
be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your
thoughts advanced to the stage of a science.”
-Lord Kelvin

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Physical Properties of Foods
Those properties that lend
themselves to description
and quantification by
physical rather than
chemical means.

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Physical Characteristics
Shape Size Weight Volume

Surface
Density Porosity Color
Area

Drag Center of
Appearance
Coefficient Gravity

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Mechanical Properties
Compressive Tensile Impact Shear
Hardness
strength strength resistance resistance

Sliding Static
Coefficient of
Compressibility coefficient of coefficient of Elasticity
expansion
friction friction

Bending Aerodynamic Hydrodynamic

Plasticity
Strength Properties Properties

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Thermal Properties

Thermal Thermal Thermal

Specific heat
capacity diffusivity conductivity

Surface
Absorptivity Emissivity Transmissivity
conductance

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Electrical Properties

Conductance Resistance Capacitance

Reaction to
Dielectric
Electromagnetic Conductivity
Properties
radiation

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Optical Properties
Light Light Light
Transmittance Reflectance absorptance

Color Contrast Intensity

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Food materials are mainly of biological origin
➢irregular shapes commonly found in naturally occurring raw
materials
➢properties with a non-normal frequency distribution
➢heterogeneous composition
➢composition that varies with variety, growing conditions, maturity
and other factors
➢affected by chemical changes, moisture, respiration, and enzymatic
activity

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Physical Properties
➢It describe the unique, characteristic way a food material responds
to physical treatments involving mechanical, thermal, electrical,
optical, sonic, and electromagnetic processes.
➢Knowledge of a food’s physical properties is necessary for:
▪defining and quantifying a description of the food material
▪providing basic data for food engineering and unit operations
▪predicting behavior of new food materials.

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Physical characteristics
➢Physical characteristics of raw,
unprocessed, as well as processed
food materials include particle size
and shape, particle and bulk density,
porosity, and surface area.
➢The variation in shape of a product
may require additional parameters to
define its size.
➢The size of non-spherical objects
may be described by multiple length
measurements.

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APPLICATION
▪The geometric characteristics of size, shape, volume, surface area, density, and
porosity are important in the design of specific machine or analysis of product
behavior during handling and processing operations.
▪Separation of seeds and grains from undesirable material. (shape, size, density)
▪Fruits and vegetables are usually graded depending on size, shape, and density.
Impurities in food materials are separated by density differences between
impurities and foods.
▪Conveying of solid materials (density, size, shape)
▪Calculation of other properties for further use in design of systems (for terminal
velocity, thermal diffusivity etc.
APPLICATION
▪Knowledge of the bulk density of food materials is necessary to estimate floor space during
storage and transportation.
▪ Sorting, grading and for capacity determination of machines and during storage.
▪When mixing, transportation, storing and packaging particulate matter, it is important to know
the properties of bulk material.
▪Surface areas of fruits and vegetables are important in investigations related to spray coverage,
removal of residues, respiration rate, light reflectance, and color evaluation, as well as in heat
transfer studies in heating and cooling processes. In many physical and chemical processes, the
rate of reaction is proportional to the surface area; thus, it is often desirable to maximize the
surface area.
▪Density and porosity have a direct effect on the other physical properties. Volume change and
porosity are important parameters in estimating the diffusion coefficient of shrinking system
Physical characteristics:
PARTICLE SIZE
➢It is used in sieve separation of foreign materials or grading (i.e., grouping into size categories)
➢It is particularly important in grinding operations to determine the condition of the final
product and determines the required power to reduce the particle’s size.
➢The physical property size is actually related or correlated to the property weight.

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Physical characteristics:
SHAPE
The shape of an irregular object can be described by terms such as the following:

SHAPE DESCRIPTION

Round Approaching spheroid

Oblate Flattened at the stem end and apex

Prolate Elongated along aline

Oblong Vertical diameter greater than the horizontal diameter

Conic Tapered toward the apex

Ovate Egg-shaped and broad at the stem end

Oblate Inverted oblate

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Physical characteristics:
SHAPE
The shape of an irregular object can be described by terms such as the following:

SHAPE DESCRIPTION
Lopsided Axis connecting stem and apex slanted
Elliptical Approaching ellipsoid
Truncate Having both ends squared or flattened
Unequal One half larger than the other
Ribbed In cross section, sides are more or less angular
Regular Horizontal section approaches a circle
Irregular Horizontal cross section departs materially from a circle

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Methods of measurement
Projected method: Photographic enlarger
Micrometer method: Micrometer and slide calipers
Electronic devices: Image analysis (Precise method)
*Precise methods incorporating optical, light, or lasers in machine
vision systems exist to define shape and size of irregular-shape
objects.
Properties of Food Powders
▪Food powder properties contribute to the understanding of operations like
grinding, filtration, sedimentation, centrifugation, spray or freeze-drying,
conveying, dosing, hopper storage, mixing etc.
▪Particle size is used in sieve separation of foreign materials or grading (i.e.,
grouping into size categories). Particle size is particularly important in grinding
operations to determine the condition of the final product and determines the
required power to reduce the particle’s size.
▪For a particulate material to be considered powder, its approximate median size
(50 percent of the material is smaller than the median size and 50 percent is
larger) should be less than 1 micrometer.
 Physical characteristics:
SHAPE
▪Roundness, as defined by Mohsenin (1970), “is a measure of the sharpness of the corners of the
solid.” Curray (1951) and Mohsenin (1970) provided the following equations for estimating
roundness under different conditions of geometry and application:
𝐴𝑝
▪Roundness=
𝐴𝑐
▪where:
▪Ap = largest projected area of object in natural rest position
▪Ac = area of smallest circumscribing circle

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Physical characteristics:
SHAPE
▪Roundness, as defined by Mohsenin (1970), “is a measure of the sharpness of the corners of the
solid.” Curray (1951) and Mohsenin (1970) provided the following equations for estimating
roundness under different conditions of geometry and application:
σ𝑟
▪Roundness=
𝑁𝑅
▪where:
▪r = radius of curvature as defined in figure
▪R = radius of maximum inscribed circle
▪N = total number of corners summed in numerator

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Physical characteristics:
SHAPE
𝑟
Roundness ratio=𝑅
where:
R in this case is the mean radius of the object and r is the
radius of curvature of the sharpest corner. It should be noted
that, the use of the radius of curvature of a single corner
determines the roundness or flatness of an object.
Roundness values will differ for each of the above methods.
Thus, the method for roundness determination should
always be noted

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 Physical characteristics:
SHAPE
▪Sphericity expresses the characteristic shape of a solid object relative to that of
a sphere of the same volume (Mohsenin, 1970). Curray (1951) suggested the
following equation for estimating the sphericity of an object:
𝐷𝑖
▪Sphericity= or De/Dc
𝐷𝑐
▪where:
▪De= diameter of a sphere of the same volume as the object
▪Di = diameter of largest inscribed circle
▪Dc = diameter of smallest circumscribed circle

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Physical characteristics:
Density (ρ)
The amount of that material occupying a certain space and is expressed in units
of mass per unit volume. Materials consisting of particles or grains with
interstitial air spaces have different values of particle density and bulk density.
Materials without internal air spaces, such as fluids and solids, have equal
particle and bulk density.
Particle density is the mass divided by the volume of the particle alone.
Bulk density is the mass of a group of individual particles divided by the space
occupied by the entire mass, including the air space.
Porosity is the percentage of air between the particles compared to a unit
volume of particles.

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Physical characteristics:
Specific Gravity
▪It is defined as the ratio of the mass of that product to the mass of
an equal volume of water at 4°C, the temperature at which water
density is greatest. A reference temperature other than 4°C may be
used if that temperature is explicitly specified with the specific
gravity value. Specific gravity may be calculated from the following
expression:
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑥 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟
▪Specific gravity = 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟

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Physical characteristics:
Surface Area
▪It is related to size but also depends on particle shape. It is difficult to measure
for irregular-shaped objects and thus is often determined indirectly or
computed by assuming a specific shape.
▪Surface area is most easily measured for items that very closely resemble
common geometric shapes. A frequently used method is the projection
method, which uses photographs or projected images to obtain an outline of
the object. Once the object outline is obtained, segments can be defined by
drawing parallel lines and calculating the area enclosed in each segment.
▪Another method involves tracing an object. The area enclosed in the tracing
may be determined by the use of a planimeter, development of segments as
defined above, or other methods.

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