Thermal and Visible Imaging to Monitor a Cooking Process

Fully cooked products represent one of the fastest growing segments of the prepared foods market. Consumers and institutional markets continue to demand more ready-to-eat and short-preparation food options. The challenge for processors is to ensure that cooked products are indeed fully cooked without impacting yield and quality by overcooking. Current practice is to use a thermocouple insertion probe to monitor the core temperature of the meat leaving the oven. This method can only sample a small portion of the product leaving the oven and in practice shows high variability. As a result, processors typically overcook to insure all products leaving the process are indeed fully cooked. The overcooking results in yield loss, increased energy costs, and decreased product quality. One possible alternative is to use non-contact thermal measurements to monitor the product during the cooking process.