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African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development
Rural Outreach Program
ISSN: 1684-5358 EISSN: 1684-5358
Vol. 20, No. 4, 2020, pp. 16261-16277
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Bioline Code: nd20068
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, Vol. 20, No. 4, 2020, pp. 16261-16277
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COUSCOUS MANUFACTURE IN FLUIDIZED BED BY WET AGGLOMERATION OF WHEAT SEMOLINA
Soulimani, O; Dounit, S & Bouhadda, M
Abstract
Agglomeration is a key unitary operation in a number of industries (pharmaceutical,
chemical, food, civil engineering). The agglomeration process controls the structural
characteristics and final properties of agglomerates. One of the activities involving food
agglomeration is the production of couscous by agglomeration of durum wheat semolina.
Couscous is considered the most important traditional dish among the Maghreb people.
The industrial process of couscous production includes various stages, the most
important of which is wet granulation of semolina, which contributes to the quality of
the final product. The agglomeration of cereal powders from different origins (durum
wheat, maize and barley) has been performed in a variety of equipment such as high
shear mixers, drum mills and fluidized beds. However, the agglomeration of semolina in
fluidized beds has had very limited study. The purpose of this research is, therefore, to
study couscous production using durum wheat semolina in a fluidized bed equipped with
a spray nozzle. The fluidized bed has the advantage of generating strong particle
movement and intense mixing to increase the size of the granules evenly throughout the
mass used.The efficiency of this process is determined by the couscous yield defined as
the mass ratio of couscous to raw material. The results showed that couscous can be
produced from semolina by wet fluidized bed agglomeration with a specific effect of
fluidification air flow, liquid flow, bed temperature and spray liquid properties on the
couscous quality (size, brittleness and morphology) as well as on yield. The latter rose
by 60% when the water containing flour was sprayed. Furthermore, the results of this
study showed that granules size changes directly with the liquid flow rate, while
temperature and air flow have an opposite effect. It was also found that changing binder
components have an effect on the quality of the agglomeration of the product.
Keywords
Couscous; agglomeration; fluidization; semolina; friability; granulation; atomization; size enlargement; drying
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