1.1 Introduction
Peeling of Potato is one of the most frequent operations even at house hold purposes or at hotels. Manual peeling is peeling the Potato with hand tool is toughest and time consuming process. It also causes for the loss of vitamins and become contaminated with the atmospheric air. This has led to the invention of a machine which peels the Potato with less human effort and less time. The processes involved in this project are designing of potato peeling machine. This project will be developing based on research from product in marketing. This project required to focusing only a peeling potato for home kitchen facilities.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
One of the post-harvest processes in horticultural products and tubers before processing is stripping. Peeling is an integral part of food processing. Most agricultural crops have to be peeled to remove the product skin which is done in the early stages of food processing (Gleeson et al., 2014). Potatoes are one of the most widely used agricultural products for food, where they are mostly used after the skin is peeled. Mechanical peeling of Potato is mostly done using abrasive tools or knives and blades (Emadi et al., 2007), but this method wastes a lot of potato parts, and takes a long time. Fruit peelers are needed in fruit processing so that it can reduce the time needed to grate and peel the fruit (Mazlina et al., 2010). Potato processing produces waste in the form of skin, pulp and waste. Sepelev and Galoburda (2015) stated that industrial potato processing produces waste ranging from 15 to 40% of the initial mass, Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the depending on the method of stripping. According to Garcia and Barett (2016), the stripping operation results in quite a large yield loss, so it is important to minimize yield loss while maintaining product quality through an ideal peeling method, one of the stripping methods is the lye peeling method. According to Caceres et al. (2012) the peeling method of cubiu fruit by immersing it in NaOH boiling solution is better than manual peeling with a stainless-steel knife, NaOH also inhibits the browning process.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Fabrication of Automatic Potato Peeling Machine.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed the problem of the existing Fabrication of Automatic Potato Peeling Machine system, which entails that, food production domain one of the key task is to maintain the high production rate and hygienity. Considering the production of potato chips, it is time consuming task and also labor intensive if conventional method of producing chips is followed i.e. using separate machinery for each individual task. As more time is consumed while processing chips from one machine to another, we have concentrated into this factor. In order to reduce time consumption and labor intensity, we as a team came up with an idea of a product with integrated, effective and hygienic way of production of chips. Effort is made to come with better design in addressing the above problem.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to fabricate and design an Automatic Potato Peeling Machine. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To design and fabrication a machine that can peel potato
- To improve the existing manual and electrical operated Potato Peeling Machine.
1.5 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Fabrication of Automatic Potato Peeling Machine.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Potato: Is a starchy tuber of the plant Solanum tuberosum
Machine: It’s an apparatus using mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task
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