ABSTRACT
At present, conventional retort heating is generally used to sterilize commercially packaged food. With this method, the heat transfer in solid and semisolid foods is governed by slow conduction heating resulting in severe overheating at the periphery of the container. Dielectric heating, including microwave and radio frequency (RF) heating, offers the potential for quickly heating solid and semisolid foods. Dielectric heating generates heat volumetrically throughout a food product rather than relying on the heat conduction. Thus, dielectric heating can potentially result in less quality (color, texture) degradation of sterilized food.
