Numerical simulation of heat transfer during meat ball cooking and microbial food safety enhancement.

Abstract

This study was conducted to apply the finite volume method (FVM) to solve the partial differential equation (PDE) governing the heat transfer process during meat cooking with convective surface conditions. For a one-dimensional, round-shaped food, such as meat balls, the domain may be divided into shells of equal thickness, with energy balance established for each adjacent shell using in the finite difference scheme (FDS) to construct a set of finite difference equations, which were then solved simultaneously using the FORTRAN language and the IVPAG subroutine of the International Mathematics and Statistics Library. The FDS is flexible for temperature-dependent physical properties of foods, such as thermal conductivity (k), specific heat (Cp ), thermal diffusivity (α), and boundary conditions, for example, surface heat transfer coefficient (h), to predict the dynamic temperature profiles in beef and chicken meat balls cooked in an oven. Once the FVM model was established and validated, it was used to simulate the dynamic temperature profiles during cooking, which were then used in combination with the general method to evaluate the thermal lethality of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. using D and z values in ground meats during cooking. The method can be applied to design cooking processes that effectively inactivate foodborne pathogens while maintaining the quality of cooked meats and evaluate the adequacy of a cooking process. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The temperature dependences of thermal conductivity (k) and thermal diffusivity (α) of raw ground beef and ground chicken meats were measured. These thermal properties were then used in numerical simulation to predict the dynamic heating temperature profile and thermal lethality of ground beef and chicken meat balls. The numerical simulation method may be used to optimize and evaluate thermal processes and ensure the inactivation of pathogens in meat products during cooking.