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Error Analysis in Estimating Temperature-Dependent Thermal Diffusivity and Kinetic Parameters using Heat Penetration Data

K.D. Dolan[1,2], A.R. Sommerlot[1], and D.K. Mishra[1]
[1]Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
[2]Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Published in 2009

Growing consumer demand for nutraceuticals has stimulated interest by food companies to increase levels of these health-promoting compounds. Thermal processing of canned foods in a retort produces a unique problem: some of the nutraceuticals are highly sensitive to temperature, and require accurate parameter estimates to predict their fate during processing. Error in temperature measurement due to heat conduction through the can-mounted thermocouple assembly could potentially have significant effects on kinetic parameter estimation, especially in this study, where the rate constant (k) increases exponentially with temperatures above 100°C.

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