ABSTRACT
The food industry has turned to automatic measurement and control to improve operating efficiencies and reduce wastage from its plants. The food industry is also starting to implement biosensors. These sensors combine biomaterial with electrical components. This chapter highlights some of the more innovative measurement and control schemes employed by the food industry to manage the imprecise and objective control variables associated with the industry. Classical measurement and control schemes such as feedback and feedforward control work on a model of true or false. A sensor is the first element in the process control loop. The sensor is used to measure a process variable. The measurement is sent to the controller where its deviation from the set point (SP) is determined and appropriate action taken to return the variable to the SP. Soft sensors are used where measurement of a desired variable is difficult. As a result the variable is inferred through the measurement of a different but related variable.
