Foodborne illness outbreaks resulting from consumption of microwaveable foods has increased the concern among the food processors, regulators and consumers on the microbiological safety of these products. While the knowledge of uneven heating of foods during microwave heating is common knowledge, methods to predict and evaluate the extent of heating non-uniformity have not been available. The variability in cavity design, wattage/power, turn table design, and magnetron feed port location affect the cooking performance of microwave ovens. Further, the differences in absorption of microwave energy by food components in a frozen and/or refrigerated food contribute to the non-uniform heating of those products. Properly designing frozen and/or refrigerated foods requires the product developers, food safety professionals and food engineers to collaborate to make these products microbiologically safe. Advances in research on development of predictive models for electromagnetic/microwave radiation and heat transfer, coupled with microbial death kinetics can provide insight on temperature distribution and assist in designing microbiologically safe foods. This symposium will address the safety of the microwaveable foods from industry and regulatory perspectives and new modeling techniques to assist food industry in properly designing and developing these products with improved microbiological safety and quality.

Presentations