Design and Optimization of Food Processing Conditions

The main research objectives of the group are the design and optimization of food processing conditions. Most of the work already developed is on the use of mathematical modeling of transport phenomena and quantification of degradation kinetics as two tools to optimize the final quality of thermally processed food products. Recently, we initiated a project with the main goal of studying the effects of freezing and frozen storage on orange and melon juice pectinesterase activity and quality. The main criterion to adequately pasteurize orange juice is a two decimal reduction of the activity of the enzyme. Preliminary experiments with orange and melon juices and previously published work for march white grapefruit pulp indicated that freezing storage is effective in reducing the pectinesterase activity. The final objective is to determine if the freezing storage of these juices, before pasteurization, can offer advantages in terms of the final product quality and total energy consumption. Finally, we have also been developing computer programs to model the heat transfer during the freezing process of solid foods. We have plans to further improve these models in order to have the possibility of predicting the effect of storage medium temperature fluctuations on the product temperature and quality