University-industry collaboration in food engineering for food production and storage

A note on the food engineer The field of food plant design reflects the same enormous heterogeneity of food materials. A quick glance at the list of the product sectors represented in exhibitions such as Cibus Tec in Parma or Fruit Logistica in Berlin is able to show a huge variety of industrial sectors, unit operations and their corresponding plant implementations (e.g. packaging, transport of liquid, solid or pasty products, heating, refrigeration, clarification, homogenisation). Therefore necessarily different professional skills converge within it. In particular, in the space between the world of biological sciences and that of engineering, operates both the plant designer and the food technologist of food engineer, as named in USA and UK. This last professional figure, perhaps less known in the engineering world, is not called to choices that directly concern the design of the machines but rather the layout of the plant in the production area, the choice between different solutions commercially available, the calibration and the drafting of maintenance plans. The strong point in the connection between the technologist and the plant designer lies in the knowledge of the food product and of the transformation processes, in relation to specific commercial, technological and hygienic requirements. In this perspective, the food technologist plays a decisive role in the machinery and plant sector, not only to verify the quality of the product under the chemical-analytical and organoleptic aspect. To such roles must be added those related to the regulation of the plants according to the characteristics of the product, to the sanitary controls and safety at work.