Model Food System Development for Quality Optimization of Microwave-Assisted Pasteurized Foods

摘要

A single mode, 915 MHz Microwave Assisted Pasteurization System (MAPS) has been developed at WSU to thermally pasteurize prepackaged food, yielding products that are both safe and have a high quality [1]. Process optimization for the MAPS is in progress; the goal is to obtain the best quality while maintaining safety. Process and product development and optimization for all food products of interest is time consuming and expensive; to address this issue, model foods can be used to represent a variety of food products. Model food systems have been an effective tool in heating pattern visualization and cold-spot determination to assess process lethality for microwave-assisted thermal sterilization (MATS), in the temperature range 110-130°C [1]. However, model food systems used for sterilization are not optimal for pasteurization because of the large difference in processing temperature. Previous work on model foods for pasteurization temperatures (70-90°C) focused on only egg white gel [2]. In addition, all the past research on model food systems for both microwave sterilization and pasteurization applications was aimed at process lethality determination and not quality optimization. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop additional model foods for quality optimization at pasteurization temperatures, especially for MAPS.