Energy analysis applied to food processing

We use first-law and second-law efficiencies on 2 multi-process food processing plants. These efficiencies are 59.6 and 19.4% for a condensed milk plant and 43.0 and 15.5% for the bakery plant. Improvements in both first-law and second-law efficiencies for the bakery can be achieved by reducing the mass of dough moulds and recovery of energy in the bake-oven exhaust to heat the air in the proofing oven. Replacement of the flash-cooling process in the condensed-milk plant by a combination of boiling at 100 °C and cooling via a vapour-compression refrigerator would lead to significant improvements in plant efficiencies.