Freezewave H2020 project-microwave assisted freezing of potato.

Abstract

In the recent times, several novel freezing techniques have been attracting remarkable attention not only within the scientific community but also in the food industry due to their ability to enhance the formation of small size ice crystals and to prevent food products from freeze-damage. One of these is freezing assisted by electromagnetic waves. This short study was intended to investigate the impact freezing under low power microwaves (MWs) (2450 MHz) had on the freezing time and the microstructure of the potatoes. The time taken by the conventional freezing process to reach – 10 ? from 6 ? was 13.95 min, while the same temperature change was achieved within 37.53, 19.87 and 20.18 min for short pulse high power (SPHP), long pulse low power (LPLP) and constant microwave (MW) freezing conditions, respectively. Although that the application of MWs during freezing process, as it was expected, resulted in longer freezing time compared to conventional freezing condition, the image analysis (X-ray micro-computed tomography) results revealed that the application of MWs during freezing process produced better microstructure than the conventional method.