A feasibility study of cane honey processing production, process design, acceptability and economic analysis

Abstract

In the design phase, quality has been important in product development. Product acceptability is influenced by the variability of the operational parameters in the food industry. Thereby, it is important to consider the quality from the process design phase. The economic viability depends of raw material cost, performance, operations involved and defective products. Therefore, this work provides a decision-making tool for process design, performance and quality in the production of cane honey. Three scenarios were considered in this case study. In one of them, it was considered the variability of the °Brix and product pH and then in the second scenario the variability of the raw material is added. In the last scenario, it incorporates the variability of the°Brix and pH at the exit of the evaporators 1 and 2.
The simulation was developed using GNU Octave. The range of pH and ° Brix that allows zero defects was between 3.76 to 4.22 and 74.55 to 76.75 respectively. It is concluded that by decreasing the variability of the operational parameters increases the acceptability of the product and when considering these from the process design the economic indicators are more attractive for the investment.