Microwave heating and quality of food

The potential of microwave (MW) energy to offer significant reductions in heating time and load during commercial preservation operations such as drying, blanching, pasteurization and sterilization, and food preparation in domestic and commercial ovens makes it attractive to food and food service industry in terms of possibility of achieving better quality and sensory attributes of products. Microwave-processed foods may also have better texture, taste, and appearance than products processed by conventional methods. The objective of this chapter is to present overall effects of microwave heating on food physical properties, quality and nutritional attributes, composition, enzymes in different foods, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates as well as the formation of undesirable chemical compounds such as acrylamides (AAs) and compare those effects with other heating modes in various food processing operations.