Separation Technologies: Filtration and Centrifugation for Food and Dairy Processing

Filtration and Centrifugation are most important operations in food and dairy processing ensuring, product quality, higher yield, safety and extension of shelf-life. This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of these essential processes, incorporating perspectives and findings. Filtration, a process of selectively removing particles and contaminants from liquid and solid food matrices based on their size and shape. Centrifugation is the accelerated separation based on centrifugal principle that is to separate heterogeneous mixtures differing in their phase densities. Centrifuges despite their costly maintenance in terms of initial investment as well as ongoing operating costs including energy usage, component wear and tear, and robust design against shear stress are finding widespread applications in dairy and food processing industries. This technique is primarily employed for the separation of solids from liquids, such as separating cream from milk, removing fat from cheese, and concentrating suspensions. Both filtration and centrifugation are crucial separation technologies that enable the production of high-quality products by removing impurities and concentrating desired components. Efficient filtration and centrifugation methods can reduce water and energy consumption, aligning with the industry’s commitment to eco-friendliness.