Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the effect of temperature on the effective electrical conductivities of multicomponent low-acid food mixtures and to study the relationship between the effective electrical conductivities of food mixtures and those of food components during ohmic heating by verifying the proposed model based on electrical circuit theory whereas each component resistance performed as combinations of series and parallel arrangements. A static ohmic heating device was assembled to generate high-frequency alternating current which then passed through food in a cell made of a 2.65 cm ID and 10 cm long glass pipe with pure titanium electrodes at both ends. The accuracy of the device was tested by using 0.02 M NaCl and 0.1 M NaH[suscript 2]PO[suscript 4] solutions which showed the differences between the measured and reported electrical conductivities of 3.55% and 1.54%, respectively. The food samples used were carrot, potato, white radish, carrot and potato, carrot and white radish, potato and white radish, and carrot potato and white radish in 0.1M NaCl solution at volume fractions of 20%, 40% and 60%. All samples were heated up from 25 ํC to 125 ํC using electrical field strength and frequency of 30 V/cm and 1 kHz, respectively. The results showed that the effective electrical conductivities of carrot, potato, white radish, carrot and potato, carrot and white radish, potato and white radish, and carrot potato and white radish in 0.1 M NaCl solution at 25 ํC to 125 ํC at volume fraction of 20% were 0.1628-0.4655, 0.1877-0.5330, 0.1855-0.5301, 0.1745-0.5072, 0.1774-0.4943, 0.2001-0.5498, and 0.1767-0.5319 S/m, respectively; while at volume fraction of 40% were 0.1269-0.3883, 0.1693-0.4825, 0.1634-0.4618, 0.1612-0.4478, 0.1338-0.3910, 0.1622-0.5106, and 0.1508-0.4686 S/m, respectively; and at volume fraction of 60% were 0.0981-0.3021, 0.1474-0.4097, 0.1512-0.4325, 0.1164-0.3459, 0.1170-0.3581, 0.1472-0.4185, and 0.1205-0.3566 S/m, respectively. The effective electrical conductivities of food mixtures increased linearly with temperture and decreased with increased volume fraction under ohmic heating. It was also found that the relationship between the effective electrical conductivities of food mixtures and the electrical conductivities of food components followed the proposed model with the difference of less than 10% for all volume fractions at any temperatures.