Coconut Sweetening Process Elizabeth Casey Justin Dillingham Mohd - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Coconut Sweetening Process

Elizabeth Casey Justin Dillingham Mohd Hussain Brady Stewart

BAE 4012 – Fall 2005

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Mission Statement

• Palm Tree Processing is a consulting

group that strives to help family owned and operated food businesses achieve the highest quality food products available.

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About Griffin Food Company

• Founded in Muskogee, OK in 1908 by

John T. Griffin

• Major products available

– Syrups – Jellies and preserves – Mustards – Coconut flakes

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Coconut Flakes

• Popular confectionary product
• Enhances food properties

– Texture – Flavor – Visual appeal

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Problem Definition

• Consumers demand the longest length of

coconut flakes possible

• Flake length of Griffin’s coconut degrades

during processing

Before After

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Project Goals

• Pinpoint and quantify degradation
• Make recommendations to:

– Prevent flake length degradation – Increase processing capacity – Improve quality of work for employees

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Process Steps

• Delumping
• Conveyance to cooker
• Cooking and blending
• Tempering
• Packaging

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Delumping

• Clumps of coconut form during storage
• Delumper used to separate clumps

– Rotating spikes

• Employee designed and built

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Delumper

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Conveyance to Cooker

• Auger transports coconut

from delumper to cooker

– Contained within PVC pipe

• Frequently clogs
• Limits processing speed

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Cooking and Blending

• Double ribbon agitation

cooker

• Blends slurry, sugar and

coconut

• Runs continuously

during delumping and conveying

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Tempering

• Barrels store coconut overnight
• Allows for uniform moisture distribution
• Large clumps often form

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Packaging

• Barrels unloaded

– Extensive manual labor required

• Auger conveys coconut to packaging

machine

– Frequently clogs

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Design Criteria

• Recipe may not change
• Production capacity must not decrease
• Simple transition from existing to improved

process line

• Minimal cost

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Concept Development

• Quantifying coconut flake length

– Modified ASAE Standard S424 – Image Analysis with MatLab

• Potential Solutions

– Proposal A – Steam Injection – Proposal B – Replacement of Auger Conveyor – Proposal C – Replacement of Cooker

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Modified ASAE Standard S424

• Sieves separate coconut

flakes

• Average geometric mean

length calculated using:

 

        

 

 i i i gm

M X M X log log 1

Xgm Xi Mi = = = geometric mean length geometric mean length of particles on ith screen mass on ith screen

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Image Analysis with MatLab

• Picture taken of

coconut flake sample

• Average flake length

calculated with MatLab

– Morphological Operations in Image Processing Package

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Results

Average Length of Coconut Flakes 4 8 12 16 20 Initial Delumper Auger Cooker Process Step Average Flake Length (mm) Red V Phildesco

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Results

Sample Phildesco % Degradation Red V % Degradation

Initial

• Delumper

5.18 8.94 Auger 18.87 23.98 Cooker 10.62 30.41

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Proposal A – Steam Injection

• Steam injected into bags of coconut to

break up clumps

• Replaces delumping and conveying

process steps

• Pros

– Less handling of coconut

• Cons

– May change coconut properties

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Proposal B – Replacement of Auger Conveyor

Pneumatic Conveyor

• Pressurized air moves

coconut flakes

• Pros

– High capacity – Minimal stress on product

• Cons

– High power requirement

Bucket Conveyor

• Buckets carry coconut

flakes

• Pros

– High capacity – Gentle on product

• Cons

– Maintenance

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Proposal C – Replacement of Cooker

• Replaces cooker with tumble blender

– Rotating chamber mixes ingredients

• Types of tumble blenders

– Slant-Cone – V-Shaped – Double-Cone

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Proposal C – Tumble Blenders

Slant-Cone

• Pros: Fast and uniform blending
• Cons: Requires large headspace

V-Shaped

• Pros: Efficient blending
• Cons: Difficult to clean

Double-Cone

• Pros: Minimal space requirements
• Cons: Longer blending time

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Spring Schedule

• Continued development of flake length

measurement methods

• Further investigation of proposals
• Evaluation and testing of proposals
• Final recommendations

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people for their help and support:

Griffin Food Company

• Richard Hall
• Craig Duncan
• David Clary
• John Trammel

BAE Faculty and Staff

• Dr. Paul Weckler
• Dr. Gerald Brusewitz
• Dr. Tim Bowser
• Dr. Glenn Brown
• Roshani Jayasekara