Computational evaluation of food carrier designs to improve heating uniformity in microwave assisted thermal pasteurization

Microwave transparent materials such as plastics have been used to make transport carriers for food packages in microwave assisted thermal sterilization (MATS) (Tang, 2015). However, polymers may have a short life in the high-temperature processing conditions and thus may not be desirable in an industrial setting. The simulations and experiments conducted in this work showed that the novel concept of metal tray carrier is an effective mechanism for transporting pre-packaged foods in microwave heating systems. The validated computer simulation model presented in this work will be a time efficient, economical and convenient tool to evaluate tray carrier designs for efficient and uniform microwave heating in MAPS.