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Journal of Food Engineering 87 (2008) 1115 www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Eect of power output reduction of domestic microwave ovens after continuous (intermittent) use on food temperature after reheating
M.J. Swain *, S.J. James, M.V.L. Swain
Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre, University of Bristol, Churchill Building, Langford, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK Received 11 January 2007; received in revised form 1 March 2007; accepted 11 March 2007 Available online 21 March 2007

Abstract The domestic microwave oven is now commonplace in the home and is often used to reheat chilled ready meals. Previous studies by the authors have demonstrated that the power output of such ovens can drop signicantly within the rst few minutes of use. This study has demonstrated that this power output reduction can have a signicant aect on the expected nal food temperatures after heating. A reproducible procedure was used to carry out heating tests of simulated chilled ready meals in 16 dierent models of domestic microwave ovens. All of the test loads had lower minimum measured temperatures (mean of three replicates) after heating in the hot ovens (ovens that had been in use for 15 min prior to the heating test) compared to when they were heated for the same time in the cold ovens (ovens that had not been used for P6 h). Minimum measured temperatures fell from a mean of 70.3 C in the cold ovens to mean of 61.3 C (range 50.367.6 C) in the hot ovens. In 12 out of the 16 ovens (75%) these reductions in minimum temperature were statistically signicant (P 6 0.05). There is an increased risk in terms of the potential for survival of bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes when reheating food products to these lower temperatures. It was evident that at the minimum temperatures attained in the food simulant test loads heated in all the hot microwave ovens, the heat treatment would be insucient to produce a 106 reduction of L. monocytogenes even allowing for an acceptable standing time. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Microwave ovens; Microwave heating; Power output; Food temperature; Food safety

1. Introduction The use of domestic microwave ovens has become commonplace and the market for prepared microwaveable foods continues to grow rapidly. All retail food products that are intended for microwave heating should provide on-pack reheating instructions relating the heating time to the power output of a range of domestic microwave ovens. These instructions aim to provide the consumer with a nal product that is acceptable in terms of both food safety and quality. Guidelines for verifying microwave reheating instructions prepared by the UK Microwave Working Group (Richardson & Gordon, 1997) advise that a minimum of
*

Corresponding author. Fax: +44 (0)117 928 9314. E-mail address: m.j.swain@bris.ac.uk (M.J. Swain).

four dierent ovens, with a specied range of measured power outputs, should be used. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the power output characteristics of microwave ovens or more importantly their potential eect on product temperatures after reheating. The guidelines also state that products must achieve a minimum temperature of 70 C for 2 min or an equivalent time and temperature combination. This reheating schedule is found in a number of advisory documents concerning the safe heating of food and makes use of data on the heat resistance of Listeria monocytogenes provided by Gaze, Brown, Gaskell, and Banks (1989). A series of investigations funded by the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in the early 1990s revealed the considerable variability in the performance of domestic microwave ovens (Burfoot et al., 1991; Swain, Foster, Philips, & James, 1994) and the potential for survival of

0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.03.013

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M.J. Swain et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 87 (2008) 1115 Table 1 Manufacturers stated power output, UK heating category, oven type and heating time determined to heat the food simulant test load Oven A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
a

L. monocytogenes when reheating food products (Walker, Bows, Richardson, & Banks, 1991). Further investigations studied the eect on microwave oven power output of a range of factors including; size of load, position of load, variation in mains supply voltage and continuous (intermittent) use. James et al. (1994) reported that there was a signicant reduction in the power output of domestic microwave ovens after successively heating water loads from 10 to 20 C over 90 or 30 min periods. The power output of all ovens fell with heating time, with most of the fall occurring over the rst 15 min of heating. Power outputs were almost constant after 30 min; on average about 13% below the initial values. However, large variations in power decline (820%) were found with dierent ovens used for 30 min. Prior to this there was much anecdotal evidence that the power output of a microwave oven decreased as their components became hot but no published information was readily available on the magnitude of the eect. Decat, Woulters, and Kretzschmar (1993) revealed in their investigations that the eciency of microwave ovens fell with increased heating times of water loads. However, this was only demonstrated at 1, 3 and 5 min heating times and with the water reaching dierent and higher end-point temperatures than in a standard test. A more recent study by the authors (Swain, Ferron, Pinto Coelho, & Swain, 2005) has conrmed that the power output of ve recent microwave ovens (on UK market 2003/2004) also fell signicantly during the rst 30 min (mean reduction 17.3%) of continuous use and indicated the need for studies to see how this aects the temperatures achieved when the ovens are used to reheat foods. The number of households in the Great Britain having use of a microwave oven has risen from 62% in 1993, to 89% in 2003 (The Oce for National Statistics, 2004). With this and the substantial growth in the chilled ready meals market (70% increase in market value from 1999 to 2003; Chilled Food Association, 2005) the likelihood of the oven being used sequentially to heat several food products is much greater. Therefore, if the power output of a microwave oven falls signicantly as its components heat up, there is going to be an increased risk of under-heating the later meals. It would also conrm the increased risk involved in using such a domestic microwave oven in retail or catering outlets where food is being reheated frequently. The aim of this study was to measure the eect of power output reduction of domestic microwave ovens after continuous (intermittent) use on the nal temperature of food after reheating. 2. Materials and method Tests were carried out using 16 domestic microwave ovens purchased in the UK (Table 1). The ovens were microwave only, microwave and grill or microwave and forced convection combination models with manufacturers stated International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60705 power outputs ranging from 700 to 1000 W,

Power output IEC 60705 (W) 700 900 800 900 900 1000 850 800 800 800 800 700 900 900 800 900

Heating category D E E E E E E E E E E D E E E E

Oven type Microwave only Microwave only Microwave only Combination Combination Combination Microwave only Microwave only Microwave + Grill Microwave + Grill Microwave + Grill Microwave only Microwave only Microwave only Microwave only Microwave onlya

Heating time (s) 345 230 345 300 350 235 280 245 345 315 370 360 240 270 300 310

Built-in model.

UK heating categories of either D or E, cavity volumes ranging from 17 to 28 l and all had glass turntables. In the UK microwave ovens are labelled by the manufacturer with a letter (AE) which corresponds to the power output measured in to a 350 g water load, which is similar to the mass of a single portion ready meal (e.g. A for a power output between 500 and 560 W, up to E for a power output between 741 and 800 W). Microwaveable food packs provide heating guidelines referring to these heating categories, e.g. heat for 6 min in a category B microwave oven or 5 min in a category D microwave oven. The tests were based on the test procedure described by Swain, Spinassou, and Swain (in press) using a 350 g food simulant test load with similar microwave heating characteristics to a slow heating chilled convenience meal (Swain, Russell, Clarke, & Swain, 2004). The food simulant material was composed of TX151 powder, a hydrophilic polymer (Weatherford, Aberdeen, Scotland), potable water at 20 C and salt in a TX151:NaCl:water ratio of 22.2:0.7:77.1 by weight. A reproducible food simulant was used to avoid the inherent biological variability of food. The rst task was to determine the correct heating time for the food simulant test load when using each cold oven (i.e. an oven that had not been used for a minimum of 6 h). This was dened as the heating time required for the chilled test load (equalised to 5 1 C throughout) to reach a minimum measured temperature of 70 2 C at 1 min post heating. To commence each run a new chilled test load was removed from the refrigerator, weighed and the specied lid placed on it. The sample was then placed in the centre of the oven turntable with the long edge parallel to the oven front and the oven started at full power. The time taken from opening the refrigerator to starting the microwave oven heating was 30 1 s. At the end of heating, the oven was stopped, the test load removed and the nal

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weight recorded. The test load temperature was then measured using the 39-point temperature hedgehog, ensuring that the insertion was 30 1 s after the oven had been stopped. If the minimum measured temperature was not within the specied tolerance, the oven was left to cool before repeating the test with an appropriately adjusted heating time and a fresh test load. Once a satisfactory heating time had been achieved, the test was replicated a further two times using that time, recording the test load temperatures and weights. The second task was to replicate a hot microwave oven (i.e. an oven that had been in near continuous use for 15 min). In order to this, a cylindrical borosilicate glass container (external diameter 190 mm, height 90 mm, thickness 3 mm, Pyrex, Barloworld Scientic, Stone, UK) lled with 1.7 l of potable water at 20 C was placed in the centre of the turntable and heated for 5 min on full power. After 5 min the warm load was quickly removed and replaced with another lled container and heated for 5 min on full power. This cycle was repeated once more until the oven had been in use for a total of 15 min. The third task was to repeat the food simulant heating test, but using the hot microwave oven in place of the cold oven immediately after the last water container was removed from the 15 min pre-heating task. The heating time remained the same as that used for each cold oven test. The hot oven test was replicated a further two times, ensuring that each oven was allowed to cool for at least 6 h before the 15 min pre-heating task. All tests were carried out in an air conditioned laboratory controlled to 20 2 C. Power to the microwave ovens was supplied via a constant voltage stabiliser (TS3B RMS, Claude Lyons, Waltham Cross, UK) and a variable transformer (Regavolt 715-G2PE, Claude Lyons, Waltham Cross, UK) providing an input voltage of 230 V 1%. Statistical analysis (t-Test) was performed on the minimum test load temperatures and test load weight losses after heating to determine if there were signicant dierences in the means. 3. Results and discussion The heating time (s) determined in the rst task to heat the chilled test load (equalised to 5 1 C throughout) to reach a minimum measured temperature of 70 2 C at 1 min post heating is provided in Table 1 and ranged from a minimum of 230 s (oven B) to a maximum of 370 s (oven K). Table 2 shows minimum measured temperatures (C) in the food simulant test load after heating for the time shown in Table 1 for each cold microwave oven (unused for P6 h) and hot microwave oven (previously used to heat three water loads on full power for 5 min each). Each value is the mean of three replicated trials, with the standard deviation shown in parentheses. Fig. 1 shows a plot of the minimum measured temperatures (C) in the food simulant test load after heating in the

Table 2 Minimum measured temperatures (C) in the food simulant test load after heating in cold (unused for P6 h) and hot (used for 15 min) microwave ovens Oven A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Minimum temperature cold oven (C) 70.0 69.5 69.7 70.8 69.7 71.4 70.2 71.0 70.5 69.5 70.4 70.3 69.8 71.1 69.5 71.3 (3.33)a (1.63)a (1.77)a (0.42)a (1.79)a (0.79)a (3.09)a (1.58)a (1.88)a (0.74)a (5.14)a (5.33)a (2.51)a (0.67)a (8.96)a (4.35)a Minimum temperature hot oven (C) 57.2 59.7 62.2 63.2 62.0 58.2 67.1 67.6 56.7 65.8 50.3 56.3 62.9 65.4 58.8 67.2 (5.52)b (1.37)b (1.16)b (0.32)b (2.61)b (1.68)b (1.54)a (1.82)a (2.48)b (1.71)b (1.59)b (4.01)b (0.76)b (2.18)b (8.43)a (2.64)a

Values in the same row with dierent superscripts are signicantly dierent (P 6 0.05). Mean of three replicates, standard deviation shown in parentheses.

cold and hot microwave ovens, ranked in descending order of hot oven minimum temperature (mean of three replicates, error bars show 1 s.d.). It can be seen that all of the test loads had lower minimum measured temperatures (mean of three replicates) after heating in the hot ovens compared to when they were heated for the same time in the cold ovens, falling from a mean of 70.3 C in the cold ovens to mean of 61.3 C (range 50.3 C (oven K) to 67.6 C (oven H)) in the hot ovens. In nine (ovens A, B, C, D, E, F, I, J, K, L, M and N) out of the 16 ovens (75%) these reductions in minimum temperature were statistically signicant. However, it could be argued that there

80 75 Minimum temperature (C) 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 H P G J N D M C E B O F A I L K Oven code Cold oven Hot oven

Fig. 1. Minimum measured temperatures (C) in the food simulant test load after heating in cold (unused for P6 h) and hot (used for 15 min) microwave ovens, ranked in descending order of hot oven minimum temperature. Mean of three replicates, error bars show 1 s.d.

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M.J. Swain et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 87 (2008) 1115 Table 3 Weight loss (%) after heating food simulant test load in cold and hot microwave ovens Oven A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Weight loss cold oven (%) 4.7 2.6 8.8 8.7 13.2 3.8 5.6 4.4 8.4 10.2 9.8 5.0 2.6 5.5 5.8 4.4 (0.08)a (0.36)a (0.11)a (0.26)a (0.08)a (0.14)a (0.06)a (0.21)a (0.08)a (0.28)a (0.61)a (0.15)a (0.35)a (0.40)a (0.36)a (0.21)a Weight loss hot oven (%) 2.7 1.2 5.0 5.6 9.9 1.5 4.6 3.3 4.2 8.0 7.8 2.9 1.5 3.8 4.5 2.8 (0.33)b (0.10)b (0.16)b (0.10)b (0.14)b (0.13)b (0.20)b (0.19)b (0.13)b (0.16)b (0.47)b (0.11)b (0.11)b (0.59)b (0.12)b (0.08)b

is an increased risk in terms of the potential for survival of bacteria such as L. monocytogenes when reheating food products to these lower temperatures, regardless of their statistical signicance. Based on data provided by Gaze et al. (1989) it is estimated that the necessary heat process to produce a 106 reduction of L. monocytogenes (one of the most heat resistant vegetative pathogens) is 70 C for 2 min or equivalent. At 68 C the equivalent heat treatment time increases to 3 min 42 s, at 65 C it is 9 min 18 s and at 60 C it has risen to 43 min 29 s. Therefore, it is evident that at the minimum temperatures attained in the food simulant test loads heated in all the hot microwave ovens the heat treatment would be insucient to produce a 106 reduction of L. monocytogenes even allowing for an acceptable standing time. It was also noted that even when using a cold microwave oven to heat the food simulant some of the models appeared more variable than others. For example, compare the s.d. of the minimum measured temperatures for oven O (8.96) to that of oven D (0.42). This indicates that even when using a cold oven the minimum temperature of food heated in oven O could be well below that acceptable, based on guidelines used for safe reheating of chilled ready meals. This is conrmed by the lowest measured minimum temperature of 60.8 C in one of the replicates heated in a cold oven O. In contrast the most reproducible cold microwave (oven D) achieved a lowest measured minimum temperature of 70.6 C. Fig. 2 shows the weight loss (%) after heating the test loads in cold and hot ovens. In all cases the weight loss from the food simulant heated in the hot microwave ovens was signicantly less (Table 3), which conrmed that the hot ovens heating performance had changed when compared to the cold oven. Weight loss ranged from a minimum of 2.6% to a maximum of 13.2% in the cold ovens and from 1.2% to 9.9% in the hot ovens. These values also

Values in the same row with dierent superscripts are signicantly dierent (P 6 0.05). Mean of three replicates, standard deviation shown in parentheses.

indicate that there is a large dierence between the performance characteristics of domestic microwave ovens that the consumer would be unaware of when considering purchasing the dierent models. 4. Conclusions Previous studies carried out by the authors highlighted that domestic microwave ovens suer from a reduction in power output during the rst 30 min of continuous use. However, it was not demonstrated as to what the magnitude of any such eect was on the temperature of food heated in a hot microwave oven compared to one that had not undergone a period of continuous use (i.e. a cold microwave oven). On the basis of the this study, it can be concluded that in 12 of the 16 microwave ovens (75%) there was a signicant reduction (P 6 0.05) in the minimum measured food simulant test load temperature after heating in a hot oven (in use for 15 min) compared to when they were heated for the same time in a cold oven (not in use for P6 h). However, in all hot microwave ovens, minimum test load temperatures were recorded which were below those required to produce an acceptable temperature/time treatment to meet safe reheating guidelines, based on the reduction of L. monocytogenes to an acceptable level. The authors believe that many users, including consumers, caterers and those using domestic microwave ovens for research purposes, would benet from a greater awareness and understanding of how the rapid reduction in power output in the rst 15 min of use aects the expected heating performance and in some cases compromise the assumed level of microbial safety provided by food reheating.

14 12 10 Weight loss (%) 8 6 4 2 0 E J K C D I O G N L A H P F B M Oven code Cold oven Hot oven

Fig. 2. Weight loss (%) after heating food simulant heat test load in cold and hot microwave ovens, ranked in descending order of cold oven weight loss. Mean of three replicates, error bars show 1 s.d.

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References
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