TITLE OF EXPERIMENT

Measurement of Particle Size Distribution of Food Powder By Using A Test Sieve

Stack

OBJECTIVE
1) To measure the particle size of powdered food material.
2) To measure size spread or particle size distribution

MATERIAL
1) Banana fritter coating flour
2) Castor sugar
3) Rice flour

APPARATUS
1) Sieve shaker
2) Weighing balance
3) British and ASTM sieves





PROCEDURE





the sieves are arrange so that larger size is
on the top of the smaller size
the size of apertures and mesh numbers
of the sieve are recorded
accurately weighed 200 g banana fritter
coating flour and placed on the top of
sieves.
the shaker are switch on and 20 minutes of
the time are set on continous mode
the flour on each sieve are weighed by
pouring the flour on a piece of pre-weighed
paper
the readings are tabulated as per Table 3.1
the experiment are repeated with rice flour
and castor sugar
RESULT













No. Mesh
No.
1



Aperture
Size
2

(mm)
Weight retained Weight Fraction Undersize Cumulative
Fractions
Banana
fritter
coating
flour

Castor
sugar

Rice
flour
Banana
fritter
coating flour

Castor
sugar
Rice
flour Banana
fritter
coating
flour
Castor
sugar
Rice
flour
1 5 4.0mm 0.00 0.00 0.00 0/186.85=0 0/200=0 0/200=0 0 0 0
2 10 2.0mm 0.00 0.00 0.00 0/186.85=0 0/200=0 0/200=0 0 0 0
3 14 1.4mm 0.00 0.00 0.00 0/186.85=0 0/200=0 0/200=0 0 0 0
4 18 1.0mm 0.00 0.00 0.00 0/186.85=0 0/200=0 0/200=0 0 0 0
5 35 500m 4.85 0.00 0.00 4.85/186.85
=0.0260
0/200=0 0/200=0 0.0260 0 0
6 50 300m 20.00 154.94 0.00 20/186.85=
0.1070
154.94/20
0=1.2908
0/200=0 0.133 1.2908 0
7 70 212m 42.00 32.58 90.00 42/186.85=
4.4488
32.58/200
=6.1387
90/200=
2.2222
4.5818 7.4295 2.2222
8 0 0 120.00 12.48 110.00 120/186.85
=1.5571
12.48/200
=16.0256
110/200
=1.8182
6.1389 23.4551 4.0404
Total 202 186.85 200.00 200.00
DISCUSSION
In this experiment, we have learned how to measure the particle size of powdered food
material and to measure size spread or particle size distribution. The sample food powders
that we use are banana fritter coating flour, castor sugar and rice flour.
Food powders represent a large fraction of the many food products available in the food
industry, ranging from raw materials and ingredients, such as flours and spices, to processed
products like instant coffee or powdered milk. Food powders can be distinguished not only by
their composition and microstructure, but also by particle size, size distribution, chemical and
physical properties, and functionality. Sieving is known as one of the most useful, simple,
reproducible, and inexpensive methods of particle size analysis, and belongs to the techniques
using the principle of geometry similarity. It is considered the only method for giving a
particle size distribution based on the mass of particles in each size range. Particle size is
defined by the sieve aperture by which a particle may, or may not, pass through. As presented
in Table 3.1 and Table 3.2, all types of sieving cover a range from 212m to 4.0 mm. This
lower limit can be achieved using micro-mesh sieves, while the upper limit can be extended to
the centimetre range by punched-plate sieves. The minimum applicable particle size range is
limited for two main reasons: first, it is not possible to produce sieve cloth fine enough for it
and, second, very small powders do not have a strong enough gravity force to resist its
tendency to adhere to one another and to the sieve cloth.
A standard sieve series usually consists of a set of sieves with apertures covering a wide range
from microns to centimetres. The sieve size is defined as the minimum square aperture
through which the particles can pass. Sieves are often referred to by their mesh size, i.e., the
number of wires per linear inch. Mesh size and the wire diameter determine the aperture size.
The ratio of aperture of a given sieve to the aperture of the next one in a sieve series is a
constant.
Sieving analysis consists of stacking the sieves in ascending order of aperture size, placing the
material concerned on the top sieve, vibrating the sieves by machine or hand for a fixed time,
and determining the weight fraction retained on each sieve. Additional forces may also be
used to help the sieving process, such as liquid flow, air jet, and vibrating air column.
Based on our experiment, the weight retained after sieve for banana fritter coating flour is
186.85 g. This value less than the actual value which is 200 g. Meanwhile for the castor sugar
and rice flour, the weight retained is accurately to the actual value which is 200 g for each
sample. Test sieve retained the most for banana fritter coating flour is Mesh No.
1
0 with 120
g. For castor sugar the test sieve retained the most is Mesh No.
1
50 with weight 154.94 g.
Meanwhile for rice flour the test sieve retained the most is Mesh No.
1
o with weight 110g.
The sieve retained the least weight is Mesh No.
1
that containing 0 g for each sample. For
banana fritter coating flour Mesh No.
1
is 5, 10, 14 and 18, for sugar castor Mesh No.
1
is 5, 10,
14, 18 and 35, meanwhile for rice flour Mesh NO.
1
is 5, 10, 14, 18, 35 and 50.
For banana fritter coating flour, the value we get after sieve are less than 200g. The values we
get are 186g. Thats mean we less 14g of banana fritter coating flour. The reasons why this
flours less because have been spill on the ground.

CONCLUSION
The objective of this experiment is to measure the particle size of powdered food material and
to measure size spread or particle size distribution. The result we get after conduct this
experiment are as stated in discussion and Table 3.1 and Table 3.2. The objective was
achieved.

REFERENCE
1) www.nzifst.org.nz
2) J.scott Smith and Y.H.Hui, Food Processing: Principles and Applications, 2008, page
223.
3) SunaAtak, Guran Oral and Mehmet SabriCelik, Innovations in Mineral and Coal
Processing, 1998, page 17.