Swedish software adds to microwave convenience

Microdefrost is a program that simulates and optimises heating and defrosting processes in microwave ovens – ensuring safer, tastier and more nutritious meals, while stopping food from drying out or losing its colour. The software was developed in a Eureka project led by Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK).

The project is based on the recognition that consumer habits have changed remarkably over the past decade, leading to a massive growth in the convenience food market. Many of these food products, whether frozen, cook-chilled or ready to eat, are defrosted and/or heated in microwave ovens.

Ensuring uniform heat distribution within the oven and throughout the food itself is therefore an issue of major interest to convenience food producers and microwave oven manufacturers.

Several factors influence how food heats in a microwave oven – from the packaging to the performance of the oven itself. Products that contain different foodstuffs, such as ready meals containing, say, meat and pasta, or fish and potatoes, may heat unevenly – not only an unpleasant experience on the palate, but a possible source of food poisoning.

“[Microdefrost] predicts microwave heating uniformity,” explains Birgitta Waeppling-Raaholt, specialist in electromagnetics and microwave processing at SIK, “This makes it possible to design the make-up of the food product – geometry, placement of different food components, packaging and so on – much faster - and reduces experimental work.”

In addition, SIK has developed software that controls heat distribution to make it more uniform. Other potential applications include the use of microwave ovens for the controlled pasteurisation of potentially infected products through more uniform heat treatment.