Low carbon Food Processing with Solid State Microwave Technologies

Our hypothesis is that solid state microwave food processing (SSMP) can provide more uniform heating, better product sensorial and nutritional attributes and lower energy consumption and carbon footprint compared to conventional electrical resistance, gas or magnetron microwave heating and can provide a route to decarbonisation of domestic, commercial and industrial cooking and baking.
Objectives:
a. Undertake a literature review to develop in-depth understanding of baking processes in domestic, service and high volume industrial applications to enable characterisation and comparison of the performance of the SSMO against conventional technologies through testing in the laboratory to establish benchmarks for the research outputs.
b. Explore the nutrient-retentive advantages of SSMOs for "temperature agile" controlled dehydration of fresh vegetables and fruit into snack forms against conventional dehydration processes . Analyse the effect of different dehydration methods on the nutritional qualities, structure and texture of the product.
c. Research the ability of SSMO to recreate the physicochemical changes that happen during convection heating for bread making, such us the thermal setting of the structure, moisture loss, browning and crust formation in order to develop a product with a soft and elastic crumb texture, toasty and crunchy crust and roasty aroma that are difficult to achieve with conventional microwave ovens.
d. Simulate solid state microwave food processing using appropriate software and techniques.
e. Use data from the tests and modelling to draw conclusions on the potential of SSMOs to provide improved product quality with lower energy input compared to conventional baking and cooking approaches and provide recommendations on areas and approaches for further improvement.