Microwave heating produces moisture distributions that are complex and fundamentally different from convective heating. Moisture loss occurs through evaporation, diffusion and pressure driven flow, and directly affects food quality. Uneven heating will increase moisture loss as well as leading to nutrient loss and flavour degradation. This Faraday Partnership project coupled the solution of the electromagnetic field with heat transfer and multi-phase porous media flow (with evaporation and condensation). Fresh and frozen foods were considered, with and without packaging, and an experimental programme provided necessary dielectric properties of foods and validation of the computational work.

Project staff and support

Tim Tilford (Postdoctoral Faraday Associate, University of Greenwich)
Kevin Parrott (Principal Investigator, University of Greenwich)
Chris Budd (Co-investigator, University of Bath)
Mark Cross (Co-investigator, University of Greenwich)
Dusko Dincov (Co-investigator, University of Greenwich)
Andrew Lacey (Co-investigator, Heriot-Watt University)
Koulis Pericleous (Co-investigator, University of Greenwich)
Stephen Jones (Lead industrial collaborator, Unilever)
Philip Richardson (Lead industrial collaborator, CCFRA)
Mark Swain (Advisor, FRPERC)
Ian Turner (Advisor, Queensland Institute of Technology)
Heather Tewkesbury (Technology Translator, Smith Institute)

This project was carried out at the University of Greenwich in conjunction with industrial collaborators at Unilever and CCFRA. It was supported by earmarked EPSRC research funding allocated to the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics, and had the working title Computational Modelling of Microwave Food Processing. Start date: July 2002; Duration: 2 years.

Related projects

Heat and moisture models in microwaving
Baking and crusting

related resources:

»	Computational models of microwave food processing
	Project summary: Computational models of microwave food processing
	Industrial outcomes
	Further Reading

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