Study of Radio Frequency Thawing for Cylindrical Pork Sirloin

Abstract

Purpose: Radio frequency (RF) heating is a promising thawing method, but it frequently causes undesirable problems such as non-uniform heating. This can occur because of the food shape, component distribution, and initial temperature differences between food parts. In this study, RF heating was applied to the thawing of cylindrically shaped pork sirloin by changing the shape of electrodes and the surrounding temperature. Methods: Curved electrodes were utilized to increase the thawing uniformity of cylindrically shaped frozen meat. Pork sirloin in the shape of a half-circle column was frozen in a deep freezer at -70℃ and then thawed by RF heating with flat and curved electrodes. In order to prevent fast defrosting of the food surface by heat transfer from air to the food, the temperature of the thawing chamber was varied by -5, -10, and -20℃. The temperature values of the frozen pork sirloin during RF thawing were measured using fiber-optic thermo sensors. Results: After multiple applications of curved electrodes resembling the food shape, and a cooled chamber at -20℃ the half-cylindrically shaped meat was thawed without surface burning, and the temperature values of each point were similarly increased. However, with the parallel electrode, the frozen meat was partially burned by RF heating and the temperature values of center were overheated. The uniform heating rate and heat transfer prevention from air to the food were crucial factors for RF thawing. In this study, these crucial factors were accomplished by using a curved electrode and lowering the chamber temperature. Conclusions: The curved shape of the electrode and the equipotential surface calculated from the modeling of the parallel capacitor showed the effect of uniform heating of cylindrically shaped frozen food. Moreover, the low chamber temperature was effective on the prevention of the surface burning during RF thawing