ABSTRACT
This chapter presents technology of Ohmic heating to process the meat. Finland used Ohmic heating (OH) for meat processing first time in 1970, however the difficulty in operation of OH led to failure of the enterprise. In 1990, cooking liver pate and hams by Ohmic heating were executed in France by the Meat Development Association and Electricite de France. Ohmic heating is also known as electric resistance, joule heating, direct electric resistance heating, electro-conductive heating or electro-heating. In Ohmic heating, heat transfers volumetrically from the interior of the food towards outside periphery contrary to traditional heating where heat transfer from hot surface to the inside surface of food is via conduction and convection. Ohmic heating eliminates microorganisms from meat via mild electroporation and heating. Vacuum Ohmic cookers can be designed to enhance quality of cooked meat. The purpose of Ohmic heating is to eliminate pathogenic bacteria from liquid and solid foods such as meat, milk, juice.
