Drying Food for Profit: A Guide for Small Businesses (Producers Guide) - Softcover

Axtell, Barrie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 185339520X ISBN 13: 9781853395208

Publisher: ITDG Publishing, 2002

Synopsis

This book has been written for existing and future entrepreneurs who wish to produce dry foods commercially at small and medium scale. Great effort has been made to use simple language but at the same time to examine all relevant technical aspects.

It starts with examining the basic principles of drying, together with the basic food technology involved.

This is followed by aspects related to markets including advice on carrying out a market survey, and marketing or selling the product both locally, nationally and internationally. On the assumption that a market exists, the publication then examines operational aspects related to the drying of common food groups and advice on establishing production, planning quality assurance and costing the product. The section ends with advice on preparing a business plan.

The final chapter considers the design of a dryer for a given application. This chapter, which involves highly technical calculations, has been simplified so that those who can add, subtract, multiply and divide and calculate percentages will be able to design a dryer for any application. It is mainly aimed at engineers who need to be able to know how to design a dryer.

Case studies are included together with an example of a business plan.

About this title

About the Author:

Barrie Axtell worked in the UK food industry for over 10 years, and then joined the British Overseas Development Program. He then spent 4 years in the Eastern Caribbean as an advisor in food processing, followed by 3 years in Guatemala teaching and developing small scale drying systems. In 1981, he joined ITDG to start its agroprocessing program and travelled extensively to developing projects in Asia and Latin America. His particular areas of interest are drying, packaging and fruit processing. After 10 years as Senior Technical Manager with ITDG he became a private consultant providing technical consultancy inputs to agencies such as FAO, ILO, UNIFEM and ITDG.

About this edition

• Publisher: ITDG Publishing
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 185339520X
• ISBN 13: 9781853395208
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96