Development of processing control and automation in the food industry improves production efficiency and quality and provides for more consistent production of food products. Optical sensors, and especially light backscatter sensors, have excellent sanitary configurations, are non - destructive and are appropriate for many inline applications in the dairy industry. Light backscatter applications are divided into two classes. The first class is a single waveband backscatter which is used for monitoring milk coagulation. The second class is a single waveband backscatter with two detectors spaced at different radial distances used to measure optical extinction. A light sensor design was used to measure light extinction of homogenized cream. Typical reflectance profiles for coagulation of milk for soft cheese (cottage) and hard cheese are presented. The selection of time parameters from the derivative curves is illustrated. One time parameter, tmax, was found to be a precise measure proportional to the enzymatic reaction rate and was shown to be a strong predictor of cutting time. A typical response for a soft cheese culture is shown and discussed. The data shows that light backscatter sensors have applications in the dairy industry for online process control applications. They are relatively low in cost, robust, sanitary and easily maintained in the dairy processing environment. The result is that light backscatter sensor technologies offer a very sensitive tool for inline measurement and control applications, especially for milk coagulation.
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