Cornell University Biological and Environmental Engineering

• Research Areas
• Biomedical Applications
• Food as Porous Media
• Combination Microwave Heating
• Thermal and Hygrostresses
• Computer-Aided Food Process Engineering

Heating Modes and Their Combinations to Optimize Quality

Various modes of heating (microwave, infrared and hot air) have unique abilities in producing certain heating rates and distribution of temperature inside a food material. Resulting moisture profiles from different modes of heating are also unique. "Quality" of a food resulting from processing often depends on the temperature and moisture history at a location in the food and their spatial variations within the food. Thus, optimum combination of heating modes, such as microwave, near and mid infrared, and hot air, can provide the right temperature (or moisture) variations while decreasing the processing time as much as possible. Our work aims at understanding the characteristics of microwave, infrared, hot air and their combination heating.

 

Publications

• Datta, A. K. , S.S.G. Geedipalli and M. Almeida. 2005. Microwave combination heating. Food Technology. 59(1):36-40.
• Almeida, M., K. E. Torrance and A. K. Datta. 2005. Measurement of optical properties of foods in near- and mid-infrared radiation. Accepted in the International Journal of Food Properties.
• Zhang, H. and A. K. Datta. 2005. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods. I: In Plane Waves. Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, 83(C1): 6–13.
• Zhang, H. and A. K. Datta. 2005. Heating concentrations of microwaves in spherical and cylindrical foods. II: In a cavity. Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, 83(C1): 14–24.