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MEAT
SCIENCE
Meat Science 80 (2008) 488–495
www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci
Received 11 November 2007; received in revised form 17 January 2008; accepted 31 January 2008
Abstract
This study aimed to develop radio frequency (RF) pilot-scale protocols for tempering beef meat blends (4 kg blocks) to achieve aver-
age temperatures between 2 and 5 °C. Post-tempering temperature distribution in these blocks was compared to products tempered
by conventional methods. The optimum RF power–time combination for tempering lean and 50:50 lean:fat mixtures to the target range
was 500 W for 11 min which produced respective means of 3.6 °C (s.d. 1.1) and 3.4 °C (s.d. 1.5). In contrast, 400 W for 11 min was
optimum for fat (mean 4.9 °C, s.d. 2.1). This study shows the principal advantages of RF over conventional tempering as an approx-
imate 30 fold tempering time reduction and a greater uniformity of end point temperature distribution under the conditions employed.
Furthermore, power consumption was reduced approximately ninefold with RF compared to conventional tempering. More uniform
temperature distribution was achieved in samples that were comminuted to a greater extent.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
0309-1740/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2008.01.015
K.W. Farag et al. / Meat Science 80 (2008) 488–495 489
microwave and radio frequency) would appear to have the The lean and fat were ground through a plate with 10 mm
most potential. In contrast to air tempering, these systems diameter holes using a mechanical mincer (Model No.
heat foods by dipole rotation and ionic depolarisation TS8E, Tritacarne, Omas, Italy). For the lean and fat,
mechanisms where in essence heat is generated within the the meats were bowl chopped with a Manica bowl chop-
product through the movement and friction of dipoles or per (Model No. CM22, Equipaimentos Carnicos,
ions in response to an alternating electric field (Buffler, Barcelona, Spain) for 120 s at knife speed one and 60 s at
1993). This will in theory allow for a relatively uniform knife speed two. A similar procedure was used for the
generation of heat within all parts of the product. 50:50 lean:fat blend after thoroughly hand mixing the
Relatively few studies have been published on the dielec- components.
tric heating of frozen foods. Thirty boxes (20 20 10 cm) were prepared using
In 1946, Cathcart and Parker successfully thawed small 0.3 cm thick freezer grade cardboard (Kepak, Clonee Co.
samples of egg, fruit, vegetables and fish from 17 °C to Meath, Ireland) and equal numbers were filled with lean,
+10 °C. Haddock fillets for example were defrosted to a fat or 50:50 mixture. This box size was chosen following
final temperature of 9.4 °C after 10 min of RF treatment preliminary studies with boxes of other dimensions, includ-
(14–17 MHz). Rapid RF thawing (36–40 MHz) of fish to ing 20 20 20 cm, 20 10 10 cm and 10 10
give a temperature distribution of between 1 °C and 10 cm. Care was taken to exclude air during filling and then
+7 °C and lower losses than achieved with air and water the meat surfaces were covered with cellophane. Boxes
thawing was reported by Jason and Sanders (1962). Bengts- were frozen in a conventional air freezer at 20 °C for
son (1963) compared RF (35 MHz) and MW (2450 MHz) 48 h and subsequently maintained at this temperature until
defrosting of meat and fish and observed shorter treatment required. To evaluate the effect of comminution (Section
times for microwave but lower power penetration into fro- 3.1) on temperature distribution following RF tempering,
zen material. In 1966, Sanders attempted to thaw blocks of triplicate boxes of whole, minced (as above) and finely
beef and pork meat with RF (36–40 MHz), but the final comminuted lean (bowl chopped) were prepared.
temperature range achieved (2 °C to +19 °C) was very
high. More recently, Pizza, Pedrielli, Busetto, Bocchi, and 2.2. Tempering method
Spinelli (1997) investigated RF tempering of ham products
using a discontinuous RF heating method at 27.5 MHz and 2.2.1. Radiofrequency (RF) tempering
claimed to have successfully tempered meat from 20 °C to The RF oven used was a custom built 50 X system built
8 °C. Other than the work of Pizza et al. (1997), most of by C-Tech Innovation (Chester, UK) using a low power
the studies published focused on thawing rather than tem- (0.6 kW) RF generator (Model No. RFG 600-27, Coaxial
pering meat. Power System Ltd., Spectrum House, Finmere Road, East-
Because of the paucity of information of RF tempering bourne, East Sussex, UK) and a complementary automatic
of meat a key objective of the present study was to develop impedance matching network and controller (Model No.
a satisfactory protocol for RF tempering blocks of meat to AMN 600-27) at a frequency of 27.12 MHz. The boxed
a temperature ranging between 5 and 2 °C which is rep- meat was placed at the centre of the bottom electrode
resentative of target temperatures set for commercial meat (Fig. 1) and tempered using one of the time/power combi-
tempering. Neither the effect of composition (fat content in nations as summarised in Table 1.
particular) nor the degree of comminution of beef meat on
RF tempering have been adequately documented in the lit- 2.2.2. Conventional tempering
erature. Therefore, another objective of the study was to Conventional air tempering was performed on a labora-
investigate the temperature profile variation of different tory scale (400 400 330 mm) using a programmable
blends of beef meat subjected to tempering (lean beef, beef Binder incubator (Model No. KB 53, Binder GmbH, D-
fat and 50:50 mixture), in order to understand better the 78502 Tuttlingen, Germany). The time–temperature profile
impact of composition on RF tempering. RF tempering used for conventional tempering was developed based on
at 27.12 MHz was compared to conventional air tempering data supplied from industry contacts. To represent indus-
and also to MW tempering at 2450 MHz. The latter repre- try practice, a programme consisting of 20 stages each of
sents the upper extreme of electromagnetic radiation fre- different duration and temperature was developed
quency used in dielectric heating of food, thus giving a (Fig. 2). Individual meat boxes were placed inside the incu-
marked contrast to the RF frequency used in the current bator to ensure optimum distribution of air-flow around
study. the product.
20 cm
30 cm
Electrodes 20 cm
10 cm
20 cm
25 cm
46 cm
Block of
meat
Top electrode
1.4 cm
Block of meat
Bottom electrode
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of (a) RF oven interior showing electrode positions and product and (b) side profile of top electrode and product.
20 cm
1 2 2
Fig. 3. Illustration of (a) fibreboard template for drilling positions, (b) 0 0
2 -2
thermocouple jig and (c) position of thermocouples on wooden skewers. -2
3
Depth (cm)
4
5
-4
The jig was inserted for 2 min into the block at the end
6 -4
of the tempering process, while two time–temperature log- 7 0 -6
0 -2
gers (Model No. 1600 and 1250, Grant Instruments Ltd., 8 -2
Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5QZ, UK) were used to 9
record post-tempering temperatures at the 25 specified 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
points within the product at 6 s intervals from the time of Diagonal length (cm)
insertion. Maximum temperature (MxT), minimum tem-
1
perature (MnT), mean temperature ( xT) and the 2 -2 -2
MxTMnT temperature difference (DT) within the prod- 3
Depth (cm)
uct were evaluated for each data set (25 values per data 4
set) over the duration of the tempering process. 5 -4
-4 2 -2
6 -2
4
2.3.2. Surface temperature measurement 7 0 0
6 -6
8
An IRISYS, Universal Thermal Imager (Type: IRI 8
9
1011, Infrared Integrated Systems, Towcester Mill, Towc- 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
ester, Northants NN12 6AD, UK) was used to capture sur- Diagonal length (cm)
face temperature profiles of the meat thereby facilitating 1
the location of the hot and cold spots on the surface. 2 -3 -3
3
Depth (cm)
for analysis using WinLog software (Great Britain & Ire- Diagonal length (cm)
land LEM UK Ltd., Geneva court, Lancashire WN8 Fig. 4. The effect of comminution level on end point temperature of
9QX, UK). tempered lean (a) whole, (b) minced and (c) finely comminuted.
492 K.W. Farag et al. / Meat Science 80 (2008) 488–495
3.2. RF tempering
Front right centre Back left Front right centre Back left
1 1
2 2 -3 -4
-3 -3 -4
3 3
Depth (cm)
Depth (cm)
4 4
-4
5 -4 5
6 6
7 7
-3
8 -3 8 -4 -4 -3
-3
9 9
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Diagonal length (cm) Diagonal length (cm)
Front right centre Back left Front right centre Back left
1 1
-2 -2
2 -3 2 -3 -3
-3
3 3 -4 -4
Depth (cm)
Depth (cm)
4 4
-5 -4 -4
5 5
6 6
7 -2 7
-3
8 -3 8
-3 -3
-2 -4
9 9
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Diagonal length (cm) Diagonal length (cm)
Front right centre Back left Front right centre Back left
1 1
-2 -3 -2 -1
2 -3 -4 2 -3 -2
-3
3 -4 -5 3 -4 -4
-5 -6
Depth (cm)
Depth (cm)
4 -6 4
5 -7 -7 5
6 -7 6 -5
7 -7 7
-6 -4
8 -6 8
-5 -5 -3 -4
-4 -4
9 9
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Diagonal length (cm) Diagonal length (cm)
Fig. 6. End point temperature distribution profile of radiofrequency and conventional tempered meat beef blends (a) lean RF tempered, (b) 50:50 mixture
RF tempered, (c) fat RF tempered, (d) lean conventionally tempered, (e) 50:50 mixture conventionally tempered and (f) fat conventionally tempered.
(Table 2). Noticeable differences in temperature distribu- of 4.4, 6.5 and 9.4 °C. It was also noticed that the higher
tion were observed between these three beef blends. For the fat content in the product the greater the observed
example, in products heated at 600 W for 8 min, MnT val- DT (Fig. 6). This finding agrees with the observation of
ues were 6.4, 7.4 and 7.7 °C for lean, 50:50 mixture Sanders (1966) who reported a wider range of temperature
and fat blocks, respectively, with corresponding DT values in defrosted blocks of beef with higher fat level.
Bengtsson, Melin, Remi, and Söderlind (1963) stated
that the field strength in a fatty surface layer can be much
Table 2 higher than in lean (due to lower dielectric values for fat,
Proximate analysis of meat used in the study e.g., e0 and e00 values for lean meat at 35 MHz at 5 °C were
Product Moisture (%) Fat (%) Protein (%) Ash (%) 13 and 7.8, respectively, while the corresponding values for
Beef lean 67.8a 11.8c 17.9a 0.8a fat were 3.5 and 2.1, respectively). This results in a much
50:50 mixture 48.2b 36.1b 13.7b 0.6b higher power dissipation in fat and an increased tendency
Beef fat 26.3c 65.7a 7.8c 0.3c towards selective heating and a non-uniform temperature
SE 0.67 1.26 0.38 0.03
distribution. Such a trend can be seen by comparing tem-
a,b,c
Means in the same column with unlike letters are different (P < 0:05). perature distributions between Fig. 6a and c.
494 K.W. Farag et al. / Meat Science 80 (2008) 488–495
Depth (cm)
4 -4
Lean, 50:50 mixture and fat were tempered in 5 h -5 -5 -4
5
22 min, 5 h 48 min and 4 h 56 min, respectively, as shown 6
in Fig. 7, these times corresponding to the attainment of 7
an MnT within each block of 5 °C. Meanwhile, xT was 8 -3
-2 -4 -3
3.4, 3.1 and 3.1 °C while MxT was 2.2, 1.7 and 9
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
1.4 °C, respectively, for these blends.
Diagonal length (cm)
-8
-10
penetration depth was 1.7 cm for beef lean similar to that
used in the present work, compared to RF which gave a
-12 value of 34.2 cm at 5 °C (Farag, Lyng, Morgan, & Cro-
-14 nin, 2008).
-16
3.5.2. Tempering time
-18 Fig. 7 shows a time–temperature profile of the beef meat
-20 blends. The time required to achieve conventional temper-
00:00:00 02:00:00 04:00:00 06:00:00 ing was 5 h 22 min, 5 h 48 min and 4 h 56 min, for lean,
Time (hr:min:sec) 50:50 mixture and fat, respectively. On the other hand,
Fig. 7. RF tempering times of lean (d), 50:50 mixture (j) and fat (N) RF tempering took 11 min for all three samples which rep-
versus conventional tempering times of lean (—), 50:50 mixture (—) and resented an approximately 30 fold reduction in tempering
fat (). time. This is in agreement with previous studies where
K.W. Farag et al. / Meat Science 80 (2008) 488–495 495
defrosting times were reduced from hours by conventional Measure (FIRM), directed by the Irish Department of
methods to minutes using RF technology (Cathcart, Par- Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
ker, & Beattie 1947; Pizza et al., 1997).