Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #407302
Research Project: Advanced Methods for Predictive Modeling of Bacterial Growth and Survival in Foods

Location: Microbial and Chemical Food Safety

Title: Numerical simulation of heat transfer during meat ball cooking and microbial food safety enhancement

Author
item Sheen, Shiowshuh - Allen
item Huang, Lihan
item Hwang, Cheng An

Submitted to: Journal of Food Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/7/2024
Publication Date: 1/23/2024
Citation: Sheen, S., Huang, L., Hwang, C. 2024. Numerical simulation of heat transfer during meat ball cooking and microbial food safety enhancement. Journal of Food Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.16949.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.16949

Interpretive Summary: Thermal physical properties (like thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and diffusivity) of raw ground beef and ground chicken were measured using the transit plane-source method. Those parameters were found temperature dependent. Therefore, a finite volume method was developed to solve the non-linear heat conduction and convective surface heat transfer numerically to obtain the dynamic temperature profiles of food undergoing thermal treatment. The simulation results may facilitate the process lethality calculation/prediction to enhance microbial safety with foodborne pathogen concerns.

Technical Abstract: This study was conducted to apply the finite volume method to solve the non-linear partial differential equation (PDE) governing the heat transfer process during meat cooking with convective surface conditions. For a one-dimensional, round-shaped food, such as meat balls, the domain may be divided into shells of equal thickness, with energy balance established for each shell in the finite difference scheme. Then, a set of finite difference was solved simultaneously using the subroutine IVPAG of the International Mathematics and Statistics Library (IMSL). The finite difference scheme is flexible for temperature-dependent physical properties of foods, such as thermal conductivity (k), specific heat (Cp), thermal diffusivity (a), and boundary conditions, e.g., surface heat transfer coefficient (h), to predict the dynamic temperature profiles in beef and chicken meat balls cooked in an oven. Those dynamic temperature profiles may be used to accurately predict the thermal lethality against Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella. The method can be applied to design cooking processes that effectively inactivate foodborne pathogens while maintaining the quality of cooked meats.