Robust optimization of Whey Less yoghurt process based on design of experiments and multi-criteria decision making Baradaran kazemzadeh, R. 1 ïª, Salmasnia, A. 2, Kouhestani, B. 3

Robust optimization of Whey Less yoghurt process based on design of experiments and multi-criteria decision making Baradaran kazemzadeh, R. 1 ïª, Salmasnia, A. 2, Kouhestani, B. 3

Abstract

One of the most important researches areas in food industry is setting parameters in an optimal level to improve process functions. A literature research in food science and technology databases reveals that in recent years many optimization methods have been developed to improve food processing. However, most of these methods have only dealt with a single objective problem. In many situations the quality of a manufactured product is often evaluated by several quality characteristics and multiple objectives must be optimized simultaneously. In this article we propose a method that integrates design of experiments, response surface technique and Signal-to-Noise (SN) ratio concept for optimization of a kind of yoghurt, called Whey Less, with three objectives: TS, Acidity and cost per unit. The proposed method considers both the mean and the variation of quality losses associated with several objectives, and ensures a small variation in quality losses among the objective functions, along with a small overall average loss. Moreover, this method can be used for both kinds of decision variables (discrete and continuous) and its implementation is easy.

Keywords

Key words: Multi-objective optimization

Design of experiment

Signal to noise ratio

response surface methodology

Whey Less yoghourt