"Food Process Engineering focuses on the design, operation and maintenance of chemical and other process manufacturing activities. The development of "Agro Processing" will spur agricultural diversification. There are several benefits of promoting small scale agro-processing units rather large scale for the promotion of rural entrepreneurship. Appropriate post harvest management and value addition to agricultural products, in their production catchments, will lead to employment and income generation in the rural sector and minimize the losses of harvested biomass. Adoption of suitable technology plays a vital role in fixing the cost of the final product and consequently makes the venture, a profitable one. It is observed that imported agro-processing machines or their imitations are used for preparing food products. Actually, the working of these machines should be critically studied in context of the energy input and the quality of the finished product."

Akash Pare: Scientist,National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India

B.L. Mandhyan, Professor, College of Agricultural Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya Krishinagar, Jabalpur-4820 04 Madhya Pradesh, India

01. Introduction 02. Material and energy balances 03. Heat transfer and its application 04. Thermal processing 05. Psychrometry 06. Drying and dehydration 07. Evaporation 08. Refrigeration and freezing 09. Separation processes 10. Milk processing