Quality assurance in microwave food processing and the enabling potentials of solid-state power generators: A review

The widespread deployment of microwaves in domestic, commercial and industrial food processing operations, necessitates quality assurance. This review critically assesses key microwaved-food quality assurance issues such as process lethality, product degradation mechanisms, non-uniform heating and volumetric temperature sensing. Non-uniform heating, the root-cause of quality assurance problems, is shown to have negative consequences on process energy consumption, and linked to the poor controllability of conventional microwave power sources, magnetrons. A case is therefore made for the use of solid-state generators as alternative power sources by a cost-benefit analysis, which includes energy and reliability aspects. The feasibility of a paradigm shift to solid-state power delivery in the development of smart processing systems, is shown, and potential commercialisation opportunities, identified.