NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE THREE–DIMENSIONAL MASS AND HEAT TRANSFER WITH INNER MOISTURE EVAPORATION IN POROUS COOKED MEAT JOINTS DURING VACUUM COOLING

Abstract

The transient mass and heat transfer in cooked meat joints during vacuum cooling was analyzed by a validatedmathematical model. The simulation indicated that a typical cooked meat joint can be vacuum cooled from an initialtemperature of as high as 74C to a final temperature of 10C within 2 h, with 8% to 9% weight loss. Simulations also showthat the effects of weights, sizes and shapes of meat joints on the cooling rate and percentage weight loss are negligible. Thepore size has a significant effect on the pressure distribution within the meat joints. For commercial cooked meat joints withan average pore diameter over 1 mm, the effects of pore size on the cooling rate and weight loss are also negligible. However,the cooling rate, temperature distribution, and the percentage weight loss significantly depend on the porosity and poredistribution within the meat joints. A better performance of vacuum cooling for cooked meat joints, in terms of high coolingrate and low percentage weight loss, can be achieved if the porosity is large enough and the pores are distributedhomogeneously within the meat joints.