Heat and Mass Transfer Modeling for Microbial Food Safety Applications in the Meat Industry: A Review

Advanced Red Meat Cooking Technologies and Their Effect on Engineering and Quality Properties: A Review

The aim of this review is to investigate the basic principles of red meat cooking technologies, including traditional and modern methods, and their effects on the physical, thermal, mechanical, sensory, and microbial characteristics of red meat. Cooking methods were categorized into two categories: traditional (cooking in the oven and frying) and modern (ohmic, sous vide, and microwave cooking). When red meat is subjected to high temperatures during food manufacturing, it undergoes changes in its engineering and quality attributes. The quality standards of meat products are associated with several attributes that are determined by food technologists and consumers based on their preferences. Cooking improves the palatability of meat in terms of tenderness, flavor, and juiciness, in addition to eliminating pathogenic microorganisms. The process of meat packaging is one of the important processes that extend the life span of meat and increase its shelf life due to non-exposure to oxygen during cooking and ease of handling without being exposed to microbial contamination. This review highlights the significance of meat cooking mathematical modeling in understanding heat and mass transfer phenomena, reducing costs, and maintaining meat quality. The critical overview considers various production aspects/quality and proposed methods, such as, but not limited to, hurdle technology, for the mass production of meat.

Mathematical Modelling of Heat Transfer in Mortadella Bologna PGI during Evaporative Pre-Cooling

Mortadella evaporative pre-cooling process from 70 to 50°C at core was investigated: the thermal diffusivity and the apparent heat transfer coefficient were experimentally estimated. The effects of ventilation and water spraying with different intervals (0, 5, 10 and 15 min) were tested and core and surface temperatures, cooling times and cook values were compared. Water spraying every 5 min combined with ventilation allowed obtaining both lowest cooling time and cook values in the product. On the contrary, continuous spraying (no interval) presented higher cooling times since probably, after a certain time, water formed a continuous film on product surface, which prevented evaporation. Based on the experimental data, a finite differences mathematical model, previously applied to Mortadella cooking process, was developed and validated by means of two cooling procedures. Acceptable approximation and low percentage errors on final core temperature were obtained, confirming the usefulness and reliability of the proposed model.