5 - Measurements of dielectric properties of foods and associated materials

Abstract

Projects for measurements and use of dielectric properties of foods involve considerations of many factors, such as accuracy, sample preparations, sample inhomogeneities, and of course instrumentation costs. The commercial coaxial probe method is commonly used, but suffers from poor accuracy and representativeness of the results, due to the very small sample volumes actually subjected to the signal. This chapter provides an overview of several methods, from old analytical to modern numerical retromodelling. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but the examples described in this chapter show that there is almost always a relevant choice.