Monitoramento do processo de produção do leite condensado

Abstract

Condensed milk is a product highly appreciated by consumers, and in its processing the most critical stage is evaporation, in which the concentration of the product occurs. To establish limits for this variable, industries create their own limits and standards. An important variable is the content of dry extract and the initial objective of the work was to quantify this parameter by monitoring the water activity during the stages of the manufacturing process. Statistical analyzes showed significant differences for water activity in the stages of raw milk and dissolution for the others, in addition, the dry extract variable was also analyzed significantly, and the results pointed out differences for the raw milk stage for the others. Subsequently, the correlation of these variables was evaluated and the analysis made it possible to obtain a good correlation, indicating that one variable interferes in the other. Therefore, it was concluded that it is necessary to study other process variables that interfere in the concentration of dry extract, and an alternative for such a study is to use process control, which is a tool that allows to identify other variables that affect the process and also allows standardization of the process. So, in this work a small review was elaborated to show the concept of process control and its applicability through studies that were carried out in other industrial plants. As future perspectives for this work will be necessary to carry out mass and energy balances to develop a modeling and compare the experimental data with the plant data.