Application of Superfine Pulverization Technology in Food Processing

Superfine Grinding (SG) technology, as a new technology that has developed rapidly in the past 20 years, is a deep processing technology that combines mechanical mechanics and fluid mechanics to overcome the internal cohesion of objects and crush materials into micron or even nanometer powders. Ultrafine pulverization treatment can make the material particle size reach 10 μm or even nanometer level. Since the powder structure and specific surface area are greatly changed compared with ordinary particles, the ultrafine pulverization particles have special properties that ordinary particles do not have, and with the modern equipment With the development of science, superfine pulverization technology has made major breakthroughs in many fields such as food and pharmaceuticals, especially in the extraction of Chinese herbal medicines, the development of functional foods, and the utilization of waste resources.

According to the particle size of processed finished powder, ultrafine pulverization technology can be mainly divided into: micron pulverization (1 μm ~ 100 μm), submicron pulverization (0.1 μm ~ 1.0 μm) and nano pulverization (1 nm ~ 100 μm). The preparation of micron powder generally adopts physical pulverization method; the preparation of submicron and below particle size powder adopts chemical synthesis method. The chemical synthesis method has the disadvantages of low output and high operation requirements, which makes the physical pulverization method more popular in the modern processing industry.

According to the state of crushed materials, ultrafine grinding is mainly divided into two methods: dry method and wet method. Dry pulverization includes rotary ball mill pulverization, airflow pulverization, high-frequency vibration pulverization, etc.; wet pulverization includes colloid mill, homogenizer and stirring mill.

Application of Superfine Pulverization Technology in Modern Food Processing

1. Extraction of natural active ingredients of precious Chinese herbal medicine

Researchers generally use methods such as microscopic identification and physical property testing to perform characterization and physical property testing of ordinary Chinese herbal medicine powder and ultrafine powder. It was found that the ultrafine pulverization technology can effectively destroy the cell walls of a large number of cells in medicinal materials, increasing cell fragments, and its water solubility, swelling power, and bulk density are also improved to varying degrees compared with ordinary powder. At the same time, the dissolution rate of active ingredients in the ultrafine pulverization process is improved.

2. Reuse of food and drug processing waste resources

Food and drug processing waste usually still contains certain natural active ingredients, and discarding them will not only cause a lot of waste but also pollute the environment. The emergence of ultrafine pulverization technology provides more possibilities for the reuse of food and drug processing waste resources.

3. Development and utilization of functional food processing

Because the cell structure of some raw materials rich in natural active ingredients is tough and not easy to be destroyed, the release rate of the nutrients and functional ingredients contained in them is usually at a low level, which cannot be fully developed and used. Ultrafine pulverization technology brings the possibility to destroy the cell structure and improve its nutrient release efficiency.

4. Other aspects

Research on ultrafine pulverization technology also focuses on the flavor components of spices, usually using low-temperature ultrafine pulverization technology. The research results show that the appropriate particle size will enhance the aroma of raw materials, and the aroma will not be lost in the later storage process; too small particle size will cause the aroma to lose faster with the prolongation of storage time.