Ultrasound In The Food Industry

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Facts Worth Knowing

How Does Ultrasonics in Food Processing Work?

Ultrasonic food processing is a well established technology used for food processing applications such as mixing and homogenization, emulsification, extraction, dissolving, degassing & deaeration, meat tenderisation, crystallization as well as functionalization and modification of intermediates and final food products. Being installed a since decades in food production plants, Hielscher ultrasonic food processors are sophisticated and developed to meet the industry requirements. Ultrasonic processors apply physical forces created by power ultrasound waves, which results in the generation of cavitation.

What is Acoustic Cavitation?

Acoustic cavitation, also known as ultrasonic cavitation, is the growth and collapse of minute vacuum bubbles in an ultrasonic field generated in liquids or slurries. The cavitation bubbles grow during the alternating high-pressure / low-pressure cycles, which are compression and rarefaction phases respectively. After having been grown over several alternating pressure cycles, the vacuum bubble reaches a point where it cannot absorb more energy so that the bubble implodes violently during a high-pressure cycle. During the bubble collapse, locally extreme conditions occur including extreme temperatures of up to 5,000K with very high heating and cooling rates, pressures of up to 2000atm and corresponding pressure differentials, and liquid jets with up to 280m/s velocity. In these cavitational “hot-spots”, locally extreme forces create physical conditions, which result in mixing, extraction and increased mass transfer.

Ultrasonic food processing is based on acoustic cavitation and its hydrodynamic shear forces