Radiofrequency Heating for Enhancing Microbial Safety of Shell Eggs Immersed in Deionized Water.

Radiofrequency Heating for Enhancing Microbial Safety of Shell Eggs Immersed in Deionized Water.

J Food Sci. 2017 Nov 02;:

Authors: Lau SK, Thippareddi H, Subbiah J

Abstract
Radiofrequency (RF) heating was simulated for improving the microbial safety of a shell egg immersed in deionized water using a finite element model. A regression equation that relates the top electrode voltage to the gap between the electrodes and vertical position of the egg was also developed. The root mean squared errors between the simulation and validation results ranged from 0.76 to 2.86 °C. Concentrated heating occurred in the yolk in all the investigated configurations, with some configurations reaching close to 60 °C in the yolk after 20 min of RF heating. The cooling effect of the water along with lower electric field intensity in the egg caused the focused heating in the yolk. Extrapolation of the model revealed that a scaled-up RF heating process (10.5 kV at top electrode) followed by a hot water immersion process can achieve a minimum of 3 log reductions of Salmonella in the yolk within 37 min.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Radiofrequency (RF) heating with the assistance of deionized water was shown to have the potential of improving the microbial safety of shell eggs. The validated model results revealed that this effect was due to a combination of focused heating and surface cooling.

PMID: 29095497 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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