Thermal Process optimisations
Thermal Process Review
Thermal process optimisation needs to be defined, by what parameters are to be optimised. What do you want? A brighter colour, a less cooked flavour or a firmer texture. It may not be possible to optimise a process for all these parameters simultaneously, some compromises may be necessary.
Understanding your product: In order optimise a process the first requirement is data. It is necessary to relate the rate of change in quality to the duration of heating and the cooking temperature. Once this relationship is understood then it is possible to use heat transfer modelling to predict how alternative processes will affect quality throughout the food. Not all quality changes can be examined in this way but until you try you will not know, and then other approaches can be tried.
Changing the process: Traditionally heat processes are carried out a single holding temperature, which is the fastest way to achieve a heat process, however, control technology is perfectly capable of applying more complex heating and cooling profiles which have potential benefits for product quality and yield that can offset the disadvantage of a longer cook times.