The ohmic heating of meat ball: Modeling and quality determination

• The temperatures of ohmically-cooked meat balls were predicted by models.
• Models could precisely predict the meat ball and surrounding water temperatures.
• Heat generated by electricity and convective heat transfer affected on temperature.
• Ohmic heating provided meat ball qualities higher than conventional heating.

In this study, the mixtures of pork meat ball and water were cooked using a static ohmic heater. The sample temperatures during heating were recorded and compared with model predictions. Furthermore, some attributes of ohmically-heated meat balls were compared with those of conventionally-heated samples. The main objectives were (1) to determine the proper models for estimating the sample temperatures during ohmic heating and (2) to investigate the effects of ohmic heating on the meat ball qualities. The results indicated that Sukprasert's model was the most precise; however, the accuracy of finite difference model would be comparable if the model was added with empirical terms. The electrically generated heat and the convective heat transferred between phases were influential to the sample temperatures during ohmic heating. The ohmically heated meat balls were significantly firmer and more uniform in microstructure, and brighter in colors than their counterparts whereas their moisture contents were lower.Industrial relevanceIn the present study, an innovative method, ohmic heating, was applied for cooking the pork meat balls because it has potential to cook the meat ball products within the shorter time and with more uniform temperature distribution than the traditional method applied in the food industry. Some mathematical models were developed and validated in this work for the industry to apply them for predicting the temperature variations of the meat ball and surrounding water during ohmic heating. This work also showed that the quality attributes of ohmically-cooked meat balls were better than those of conventionally-cooked samples in many aspects.