Optimization of Microwave Technology in Food Processing: Trends and Prospects
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Engineering and Technology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2021) | Viewed by 2881
Special Issue Editors
Interests: thermal and electrothermal processes; microwave; process control; modeling
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Microwave technology presents a high potential for food processing, essentially because energy is supplied volumetrically and not only at overheated surfaces, as in conventional thermal processes, allowing a faster treatment with a better energy efficiency and reduced loss of quality attributes. Due to their high water and ionic contents, food products have proper dielectric properties that allow for electrothermal processing.
Many challenges, however, exist for the expansion of microwave technology in the food industry. Amongst them, (i) complex temperature distribution, especially in solid foods, generate non-trivial cold spots and innovative solutions are needed to homogenize the treatment and guarantee food safety; (ii) treatment of powders remains understudied even if experimental results are promising, and the multiphysics modelling of the phenomena is a scientific challenge; (iii) an important controversy subsists about the potential non thermal effect of microwaves on enzymatic or microorganism inactivation; (iv) the use of microwaves to assist food freezing permits to obtain smaller crystals, for reasons that have yet to be elucidated.
These challenges lead us to propose the edition of this Special Issue dedicated to microwave technology in food processing, to better evaluate and disseminate the advances in this promising area.
Prof. Dr. Lionel Boillereaux
Prof. Dr. Jorge Andrey Wilhelms Gut
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- microwave technology
- coupled heat and mass transfer with microwave heating
- enzymatic and microorganism inactivation
- non-thermal effects
- multidimensional modelling with microwaves
- simulation, optimization and control
- frequency effects
- dielectric properties
