Whenever I get hungry, I think of how valuable food process engineering is. It is not just a course but an experience of entrepreneurship. As far as man eats and drinks, there will always be an opportunity for a process engineer. What interests me the most is the attitude to redevelop an existing concept. Building on an old idea,product into a new concept to meet a demand. Food process engineering represents the art of innovation. An innovation that answers the questions? The questions that have to do with convenience, satisfaction and unending love for a particular product.
Engineers solve problems, they make things work, as such the discipline of food process engineering harbours an inch of every other engineering discipline,economics,law, IT management, entrepreneurship, and a lot more. Travelling across Ghana, I have realised the importance of this discipline to consumers. Virtually every community has a processing site. In some areas, palm oil processing is the dominant activity, interestingly the indigenes focus on how to fully utilise their raw material by processing the kernels into oil, shells as a source of heat and the fibre as door mat. Some areas produce salt on a small scale,package it nicely and distribute. Akpeteshie producers are no different and couple of products like the famous 'sobolo' and 'burkina' are all produced on a small scale, using the same principle of food processing.
The question that boggles most people is;What can the food process Engineer do differently from the local processing methods? The food process engineer first and foremost study the current processing mechanism and designs a better plant to process the same material;from the raw material to a packaged product. He identifies the challenges with the old system and solve those challenges,He designs the system such that efficiency is optimum. All these measures are adopted to ensure that optimization is KEY,low cost but highly efficient. The engineer sees beyond the immediate product, he moves further to refine one product from the other, this is applicable because he is thought to understand the physical and chemical property of every material. The food process engineer applies his knowledge in microbiology to ensure that the food is highly safe,free from any micro-organism;by sterilizing the equipment at the appropriate temperatures and pasteurizing the food to kill all micro-organisms,especially disease causing organisms. Thus sanitation is very important to a food process engineer.Safety is not compromised at all, as a food process engineer, safety is a major factor that is unavoidable, safety of the entire plant and every unit is of prime interest. In some cases, he designs his own equipment when the need arises using the right material. What else about the plant? Is it Quality Assurance or Stastical analysis?Just ask the food process engineer.
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Above all these qualities, a food process engineer exhibits other positive mental attitude such as punctuality,diligence,hard work,good leadership skills that translate in every other activity. What fascinates most people the more is the versatility of a food process engineer. He is competent enough to work in any other discipline and excels at it. Be it a pharmaceutical industry, Bank, Petroleum industry,just mention it. Indeed FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING IS AN EXPERIENCE to live.
The question that boggles most people is;What can the food process Engineer do differently from the local processing methods? The food process engineer first and foremost study the current processing mechanism and designs a better plant to process the same material;from the raw material to a packaged product. He identifies the challenges with the old system and solve those challenges,He designs the system such that efficiency is optimum. All these measures are adopted to ensure that optimization is KEY,low cost but highly efficient. The engineer sees beyond the immediate product, he moves further to refine one product from the other, this is applicable because he is thought to understand the physical and chemical property of every material. The food process engineer applies his knowledge in microbiology to ensure that the food is highly safe,free from any micro-organism;by sterilizing the equipment at the appropriate temperatures and pasteurizing the food to kill all micro-organisms,especially disease causing organisms. Thus sanitation is very important to a food process engineer.Safety is not compromised at all, as a food process engineer, safety is a major factor that is unavoidable, safety of the entire plant and every unit is of prime interest. In some cases, he designs his own equipment when the need arises using the right material. What else about the plant? Is it Quality Assurance or Stastical analysis?Just ask the food process engineer..jpg)
Above all these qualities, a food process engineer exhibits other positive mental attitude such as punctuality,diligence,hard work,good leadership skills that translate in every other activity. What fascinates most people the more is the versatility of a food process engineer. He is competent enough to work in any other discipline and excels at it. Be it a pharmaceutical industry, Bank, Petroleum industry,just mention it. Indeed FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING IS AN EXPERIENCE to live.
