Fundamentals-based quality prediction: Texture development during drying and related processes

Using Young's modulus as a measure for texture, a framework for predicting the effective modulus of a solid food material is developed and extended to four moisture removal processes–frying, drying, microwave heating and baking. The effective modulus is predicted using mechanical analysis from local modulus values that depend on transient moisture and temperature. For two different processes of drying and frying, the development of modulus can be predicted from the same dependence of moisture and temperature. These predictions compared well with experimentally measured modulus. The prediction framework is then extended to the processes of baking and microwave heating. The moisture and temperature information needed for prediction of modulus is in turn obtained from multiphase porous media based models of the processes, thus making physics-based texture prediction possible from process and product parameters. Texture development during the four moisture removal processes are compared with each other and the effect of oven temperature and sample size is discussed.