Continuous measurement of contact heat flux during minced meat grilling

Few studies concerning contact heating of food products were found in the literature despite the importance of this mode of heat transfer in many operations (grilling, pan-frying) and its drastic impact on product quality change during heating. An original heating device to measure continuously contact heat flux and heating surface temperature was therefore developed and applied to the contact heating of turkey meat with a heating surface at 128°C, 215°C and 255°C. Based on the experimental results obtained, a simplified heat transfer model was developed and allowed the calculation of the parts of the total energy received by the product (i) used to raise its temperature (ii) used to evaporate water exuding from its lower surface during heating and (iii) lost by heat exchange with the surroundings. In the experimental conditions covered by our experiments, the part of energy used to evaporate water exuding from the product was found to vary between 55% and 67% of the total energy received. The precise evaluation of the kinetics of variation of the contact heat transfer coefficient (quantifying the quality of thermal contact between the lower surface of the meat sample and the heating plate) was also made possible. At 215°C and 255°C, this coefficient ranged from 500 to 100 W⋅m−2⋅K−1 between the start and the end of the cooking, these values being in the same order of magnitude as those measured in previous studies concerning single-faced grilling of meat.