Microwave Processing

By Priyanka P. Nair
Nivetha S
Content
• Introduction (The Basic Science of Microwave Heating)
• Principle
• Microwave Generation
• Working of Microwave heating
• Industrial microwave heating
• Advantage and disadvantage of microwave processing
• Application of Microwave in dairy and Food Processing
• Case Study
• Conclusion
The Basic Science of Microwave Heating
• Microwave heating happens due to the interaction
of electromagnetic radiation with the dielectric
properties of foods
• Microwave cover the range of 300 MHz to 300
GHz wave-lengths in the electromagnetic
spectrum form
• Microwaves have three characteristics that allow
them to be used in cooking:
1. They are reflected by metal
2. They pass through glass, paper, & plastic
3. They are absorbed by foods
Principle
• Food contain polar water molecules, & these
molecules have dipole moments
• These molecules have +ve and -ve charge centers
that do not coincide
• The polar molecules rotate continuously to align
with the electromagnetic field as the field is
alternated
• Friction between the molecules convert
electromagnetic energy into heat & increases the
temperature of food
• As heat is generated, it conducts through the food
Equipment Design
A simple microwave system consists of four
main components

1. Magnetron - converts electric energy into

microwave energy
2. Resonance cavity - holding and heating food
3. Waveguide - leads the microwaves from the
magnetron to the cavity
4. Finally, there is the control system
 Microwave Generation
• The microwaves are generated by special oscillator
tubes called "Magnetrons and Kystron”
1. Magnetron: cylindrical diode with a ring of resonant
cavities that acts as a anode structure; produces
electro-magnetic radiation
2. Klystron: vacuum tube in which the oscillations are
generated & sustains oscillation within the cavity
• Device that converts low frequency electrical energy
into hundreds and thousands of megacycles
• The electromagnetic energy, at microwave frequency is
conducted through a coaxial tube or wave guide at a
point of usage
Working of Microwave heating ( Di-electric Heating )
• After the generation of microwaves at the
magnetron, they are guided by the waveguide
towards water molecules in the food
• As the orientation of the electric field changes over
time, the polar molecules attempt to follow the field
• Water molecules change their orientation inside the
material to line up along the field lines in an
energetically favorable configuration 
• As these molecules change direction rapidly
(millions of times per second at least), they gain
energy, which increases the temperature of the
material
Working of Microwave heating ( Di-electric Heating )
 Industrial microwave processing
 Microwave Food Baking and Roasting:
• Conventional heating technique gives best results, but they
needed longer processing time
• Microwave offers better yield with Half the baking time with
no losses in heat transfer and more energy efficient
• No pollution and Lower maintenance

 Micro wave Blanching:

• Offers better blanching compared to conventional blanching
process of hot water dipping and steam blanching
• Conventional blanching results in problems such as loss of
weight and nutrients
• deactivation of enzymes without effecting texture and loss of
nutrients
Industrial microwave processing cont..
 Microwave Sterilization:
• Conventional sterilization process requires high
temperature which is slower process and energy
utilizing & changes the characteristics of food
• microwave based solution offers Environmental
friendly, Efficient and safest method

 Microwave Pasteurization:
• Pasteurization is heat treatment, majorly performed in
liquid food products such as Milk and juices
• Microwave pasteurization processing offers more
energy efficient and quieter solution with Lesser
processing time
Advantage & disadvantage of microwave processing
Advantages
• Reduced energy use
• Reduced waste
• Lower environmental impact
• Superior product quality and yield
• Enhanced catalytic performance
• Batch to continuous processing
• Inherent safety
• Cross sector technology transfer
Disadvantages
• Radiation Injuries
• High initial cost
• Damage to the eyes (while looking
into the oven with damaged
protective mesh)
• Needs Special Containers
• Offers dry and soggy food
• Chances Of Food Poisoning
• Not Versatile
Application of Microwave in Food Processing
• Baking: for internal heating microwave, for
external heating hot air or infrared for crust
formation
• Concentrating: concentration of heat sensitive
fluids and slurries at relatively low temperature in
relatively short time
• Blanching: rapid and uniform heating
inactivates enzymes by not overcook the outside
before core enzymes are inactivated
• Finish drying: microwaves remove the last
traces of moisture without overheating the
already dried material
 Application of Microwave in Food Processing
• Puffing and foaming: rapid internal heating
makes the rate of heat transfer greater than the rate
of vapor transfer out of the product
• Solvent removal: many solvents are efficiently
vaporized by microwave at relatively low
temperature
• Sterilizing: sterilization of glass, and plastic is
possible since microwave kills moisture containing
microorganisms
• Thawing: controlled, rapid thawing of bulk items
is possible due to substantial penetration 0f
microwaves into frozen materials
Microwave baking of food products
• Microwave can be use for baking of biscuits, pound
cakes, cakes, breads and other food products
• Unlike conventional heating, energy absorption
from microwave results in internal heat generation
and as a consequence internal vapor generation
• The most prominent advantages of microwave
Baking is
1. Reachable acceleration
2. Space, possible volume, instead of surface heating
and quality enhancement. 
3. Nutrient and time savings
• Microwave drying to be a good alternative for food
products that are susceptible to case hardening
Case Study 1 – Owens Sausage 'n Biscuits
• Owens Country (Richardson, TX) is a family-owned
company in Sweden
• In 1980, the company decided to expand its business
• Owens was manufacturing cooked sausage patties on a
double-sided gas grill which lead to many problems such as:
1. Fires daily due to fat dripping
2. Annual cost of over 4000 man hours was spent just clean
the fat
3. Patties were burned and deformed and had to be
discarded resulted in just 65% of yield
• Which lead Owens to replace the equipment with a
microwave process
 Case study continued..
• Owens shifted to microwave cooking and browning and
used infrared heating to ‘seal-in-the-juices’ followed by
microwaving
• The result increased the final yield to 83%
• The gentle microwave process avoided any serious
shrinkage of the meat
• cleanup time of microwave processing was less than an
hour daily, compared to 16 hours per day previously
• Hence the finished patties were juicy and of larger
volume than the previous patties, since
• Owens Sausage 'n Biscuits successful launch its product
in supermarkets throughout the South of Sweden
Case study 2 - Industrial scale microwave processing of
tomato juice using a novel continuous microwave system
• This study evaluated the effect of an industrial scale
continuous flow microwave volumetric heating
system in comparison to conventional commercial
scale pasteurization for the processing of tomato juice
in terms of physicochemical properties, microbial
characteristics and antioxidant capacity
• The effect against oxidative stress in Caco-2 cells,
after in vitro digestion was also investigated.
• Physicochemical and colour characteristics of
juices were very similar between technologies
and during storage.
• Both conventional and microwave
pasteurisation inactivated microorganisms
and kept them in low levels throughout
storage.
• Juice processed with the microwave system
showed an increased cytoprotective effect
against H2O2 induced oxidation in Caco-2
cells.
• Organoleptic analysis revealed that the two
tomato juices were very similar.
• The continuous microwave volumetric heating
system appears to be a viable alternative to
conventional pasteurisation.
Conclusion
• Microwave heating has been established in a number of industrial
sectors
• Undoubtedly the food industry with its diverse operations offers
the biggest opportunity for microwave processing
• The formidable challenge of other competitive techniques must be
seriously addressed
• Recent developments in the ceramics industries point to major
applications which may come on stream involving large microwave
power the near future
Reference
• Thostenson, E.T. and Chou, T.W., 1999. Microwave processing: fundamentals
and applications. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing,
30(9), pp.1055-1071.
• Metaxas, A.A. and Meredith, R.J., 1983. Industrial microwave heating (No.
4). IET.
• Edgar, R.H. and Osepchuk, J.M., 2001. Consumer, commercial, and
industrial microwave ovens and heating systems. In Handbook of Microwave
Technology for Food Application (pp. 247-310). CRC Press.
• Joseph, O.I., 2017. Microwave heating in food processing. BAOJ Nutrition, 3,
p.027.
• http://sciencedirect.com/
Thank you
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