ABSTRACT
Physical separation has been used in the food industry to remove haze from wine and fruit juices or nectars, separate the protein of cheese whey into fractions that have different functional property, split foreign matter from grains, and concentrate fruit juice without heat. Physical separations can be categorized into four groups: sedimentation, centrifugation, filtration, and sieving. The laboratory exercise will focus on centrifugal separation and sieving analyses. The sieve shaker that provides a horizontal vibration in a small-amplitude, high-frequency oscillation may be used to facilitate the sieving process. The shaking action of the sieve provides the necessary motion to make the particles fall through and also conveys the oversize particles onto the next section. Centrifugal separators are available in small-diameter, high-speed machines and those of large diameter and low speed. In obtaining meaningful sieve analysis data, three major steps must take place: sampling, the actual sieving technique, and computation, presentation, and data analysis.
