Microwave Food Processing: Principles and Applications

Thermal processes are the most applied methods to make food meet the safety and quality requirements of consumers. However, food heating by conventional methods is associated with several undesirable effects on nutritional and sensorial properties. Designing an innovative thermal process that focuses on minimal, rapid, uniform, and economic heating is of great importance. Microwave heating has numerous advantages over conventional methods. Thanks to its volumetric and rapid heating, microwave technology has several applications in food processing. Nevertheless, non-uniform heating remains the main drawback of microwave heating. Combination of microwave heating with conventional and/or other innovative heating methods have been widely investigated in the literature to overcome this problem. In this chapter, the theorical principles and the governing equations of microwave interactions with food materials are presented. In addition, the applications of microwave heating for food processing and the efficiency of recent improvements are reviewed.