Novel thermal processing technologies

Abstract

[Excerpt] Introduction: Heating is probably the oldest means of processing foods and has been used by mankind for millennia. However, the technology used to heat foods in order to process them has had a spectacular evolution during the twentieth century that has continued until the present time. Technologies such as ohmic heating, dielectric heating (which includes microwave heating and radio-frequency heating), and inductive heating have been developed that can replace, at least partially, the traditional heating methods that rely essentially on conductive, convective, and radiative heat transfer. They all have a common feature: heat is generated directly inside the food and this has direct implications in terms of both energetic and heating efficiency. [...]