Determination of thermal properties of food materials theory and experiments

Mathematical models are presented for predicting the time-temperature characteristics during air cooling of moist food products in the shape of infinite slab, infinite cylinder and sphere, taking into account the mass transfer effects at the surface. An experiment to determine the time-temperature characteristics of food products from which the thermal properties can be determined using the proposed mathematical model is described. The present analysis predicts faster cooling rates compared to an analysis which considers only pure convection heat transfer at the boundary. Time-temperature histories of some food models, fruits and vegetables are obtained experimentally. A nonlinear estimation procedure is used to match the experimentally obtained time-temperature histories with theoretical results to evaluate the unknown thermal properties of the products studied. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.