The head of this group is Professor P.J. Fryer , who is also my project supervisor. By utilising ohmic heating in a commercial High Temperature Short Time process, it may be possible to produce very high quality sterile food. Understanding of the ohmic heating of liquid-particle mixtures requires preliminary study and model development within a static heater, and knowledge of the interaction between temperature and voltage fields. Critical parameters need to be identified, together with an investigation of the effects of features such as particle shape, size, orientation and distribution. The resulting mathematical models are often complex and highly nonlinear.
Thermal processing is a traditional method of in the food process industry.
Currently, most thermal sterilisation techniques employ indirect heating, in that an external medium applies heat to the material. The result is that canned food, although commercially sterile, is often of low quality. An alternative technique is direct heating, in which heat is generated within the material itself. Ohmic heating, which uses the inherent electrical resistance of a material to generate heat, is a relatively new process in food engineering, and has already attracted attention from some large companies. It is important to demonstrate that it can produce safe, high quality, food, and to validate any commercial process by demonstrating that the process can be understood and an accurate model can be developed.