Ohmic Heating of Foods

By, Divya P S Harish S Indumathi Jeevitha Karthik

Ohmic Heating- An Introduction

Ohmic heating is an advanced thermal processing method wherein the food material, which serves as an electrical resistor, is heated by passing electricity through it. Electrical energy is dissipated into heat, which results in rapid and uniform heating. Ohmic heating is also called electrical resistance heating, Joule heating, or electro-heating, and may be used for a variety of applications in the food industry.

Ohmic Heating (Cont.)

The concept of ohmic heating in this way is not new, but it has been developed into a commercial process during the last 15 years by the APV Baker company, using a licensed design by EA Technology. The process can be used for UHT sterilisation of foods, and especially those that contain large particles (up to 2.5 cm) that are difficult to sterilise by other means. It is now in commercial use in Europe, the USA and Japan.

Used in.
Aseptic processing of high added-value ready meals, stored at ambient temperature. Pasteurisation of particulate foods for hot filling Pre-heating products before canning High added-value prepared meals, distributed at chill temperatures (Fryer, 1995).

Principles
Ohmic heating is based on the passage of alternating electrical current through a body such as a liquidparticulate food system which serves as an electrical resistance in which heat is generated. AC voltage is applied to the electrodes at both ends of the product body. The rate of heating is directly proportional to the square of the electric field strength, E, and the electrical conductivity. The electric field strength can be varied by adjusting the electrode gap or the applied voltage. The most important factor is the electrical conductivity of the product and temperature dependence.

Ohmic Heating Process

In ohmic heating, main alternating current is passed directly through a conductive food, which causes heat generation within the food. Due to internal heat generation, the heating is rapid and more uniform than traditional systems used for heating foods where heat must travel from the outside surface to the inside of the food. The rapid and uniform heating of a food is advantageous in retaining many quality characteristics such as colour, flavour, and texture. The efficiency of ohmic heating is dependent upon how well the electric current can pass through the food, as determined by its electrical conductivity. Therefore, the knowledge of electrical conductivity of foods is important in designing processes and equipment involving ohmic heating.

Pre Treatment
Pre-treatments of solid components include: pre-heating in the carrier liquid to equilibrate resistances blanching pasta for moisture absorption heating the carrier liquid to pre-gelatinise starch heating to melt and expel fats stabilisation of sauces by homogenisation, especially dairy sauces or others that contain fats and heat sensitive proteins blanching vegetables to expel air and/or to denature enzymes enzymic marinades to soften texture and enhance flavour of meats soaking in acids or salts to alter the electrical resistance of particles sauteing to improve appearance of meat particles

Theory
Electrical resistance of a food is measured using a multi meter connected to a conductivity cell. The measured resistance is converted to conductivity using: =(1/R)(L/A) where (S m1) product conductivity, R(ohms) measured resistance, L(m) length of the cell and A(m2)area of the cell.

 As an example of ohmic heating, we will consider heating a liquid food with Newtonian characteristics when pumped through an ohmic heater. We assume that the flow conditions through the tubular-shaped heater are similar to plug flow, and a constant voltage gradient exists along the heater. In this setup, heat is generated within the liquid due to ohmic heating, and heat loss from the fluid is in radial direction to the outside, if the heater pipe is uninsulated.

 For this setup, conducting a heat balance we get,

 where | V| is voltage gradient along the heater pipe length,(V/m); is the electrical conductivity at 0C; m is the slope obtained from equation C is the characteristic dimension or diameter of the heater pipe (m); L is the length of heater pipe (m); U is the overall heat transfer coefficient based on the inside area of the heater pipe,(W/m 2C); T is the temperature of the air surrounding the heater (C).

 The initial condition is Expanding the terms in Equation and rearranging, we get

 Where

Integrating Equation (4.189),we obtain

Uses
Ohmic heating has been used to process various combinations of meats, vegetables, pasta and fruits when accompanied by a suitable carrier liquid.

Advantages of Ohmic Heating

the food is heated rapidly (1Cs1) at the same rate throughout and the absence of temperature gradients results in even heating of solids and liquids if their resistances are the same heat transfer coefficients do not limit the rate of heating temperatures sufficient for UHT processing can be achieved there are no hot surfaces for heat transfer, as in conventional heating, and therefore no risk of surface fouling or burning of the product which results in reduced frequency of cleaning heat sensitive foods or food components are not damaged by localised overheating liquids containing particles can be processed and are not subject to shearing forces that are found in, for example, scraped surface heat exchangers it is suitable for viscous liquids because heating is uniform and does not have the problems associated with poor convection in these materials energy conversion efficiencies are very high (>90%) lower capital cost than microwave heating suitable for continuous processing.