EVALUATION OF MICROWAVE ASSISTED FREEZING (MAF) IMPACT ON MEAT AND FISH MATRICES

摘要

Several preservation methods have been investigated, developed and exploited over the last years butrnfreezing still remains one of the most popular among them which offers fresh-like characteristics on the foodrnmatrix after long period of storage. The freezing process of food matrices is affected by their dominantrnconstituent which is water. The final quality of the frozen product depends on the phase transition or therncrystallization process of changing water into ice. The size of the ice crystals is critical for the final quality ofrnthe frozen food.rnIn the present study a novel more advanced experimental setup was designed and developed for thernapplication of microwave radiation during freezing. The influence of microwave assisted freezing (MAF) onrnmeat and fish matrices under different conditions was investigated and promising results regarding thernmicrostructure of the frozen samples were acquired.