Porosity evolution in food

PORE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION, AND ITS EFFECT ON FOOD QUALITY

A number of factors including quality of raw material, internal microstructure, the method of preparation, pre-processing treatments and drying conditions affect the quality of dried food. The structure of the food materials goes through deformations due to the simultaneous effect of heat and mass transfer during the drying process. Pore formation and evolution lead to changes in many quality attributes and directly affects physical properties including the mass diffusion coefficient, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and microstructure. A considerable amount of research work has been done to investigate the characteristics of pore during drying. However, the research up to now has examined porosity formation during traditional drying methods like convective drying and freeze-drying. Microwave assisted convective drying is an advanced area of drying and research shows that intermittent microwave-convective drying (IMCD) increases both energy efficiency and product quality. However, researchers have not investigated pore formation and evolution in IMCD yet.

Plant-based food materials are complex in nature as these have heterogeneous, amorphous, hygroscopic and porous properties. During drying, water from hygroscopic porous media is migrated in different phases (e.g. liquid water and vapor). Only multiphase transport models consider transport of liquid water, vapor, and the air inside the food materials separately and, therefore, are more realistic. However, currently, there is no multiphase model for the IMCD process.
This research, therefore, first develops a pore formation and evolution model and investigates the relationship between the porosity and mechanical and other properties of food. The model takes both process parameters (e.g. drying temperature) and sample properties (e.g. glass transition temperature) into consideration. The model can predict dynamically the changes in porosity, shrinkage and case hardening of food samples during drying. A multiphase model for IMWC drying has been developed taking porosity evolution and shrinkage over the course of drying into account. In this model, solid matrix, liquid water and gas (water vapor and air) phases, pressure-driven flow as well as capillary diffusion, binary diffusion, and evaporation are considered.

Related Publications

• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, Azharul, Brown, Richard J., & Kumar, Chandan (2016) Porosity: Establishing the relationship between drying parameters and dried food quality [SpringerBriefs in Food, Health, and Nutrition]. Springer, Switzerland. 
• Khan, Md. Imran H., Kumar, Chandan, Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, & Karim, Azharul (2016) Multiphase porous media modelling: A novel approach to predicting food processing performance. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 
• Khan, M.I.H., Kumar, Chandan, Joardder, M.U.H., & Karim, M.A. (2016) Determination of appropriate effective diffusivity for different food materials. Drying Technology. (In Press)
   
• Kumar, C., Joardder, M.U.H., Farrell, T.W., & Karim, M.A. (2016) Multiphase porous media model for Intermittent Microwave Convective Drying (IMCD) of food. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 104, pp. 304-314.
   
• Kumar, Chandan, Farrell, Troy W., Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Millar, Graeme J., & Karim, Azharul (2016) Mathematical model for intermittent microwave convective drying of food materials. Drying Technology: An International Journal, 34(8), pp. 962-973.  
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Brown, Richard J., Kumar, Chandan, & Karim, Azharul (2015) Effect of cell wall properties on porosity and shrinkage of dried apple. International Journal of Food Properties, 18(10), pp. 2327-2337.  
• Kumar, Chandan, Millar, Graeme J., & Karim, Azharul (2015) Effective diffusivity and evaporative cooling in convective drying of food material. Drying Technology, 33(2), pp. 227-237.  
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Kumar, Chandan, & Karim, Azharul (2015) Food structure : its formation and relationships with other properties. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. (In Press) 
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Brown, Richard J., Kumar, Chandan, & Karim, Azharul (2015) A micro-level investigation of the solid displacement method for porosity determination of dried food. Journal of Food Engineering, 166, pp. 156-164.
   
• Perussello, Camila Augusto, Kumar, Chandan, de Castilhos, Fernanda, & Karim, M.A. (2014) Heat and mass transfer modeling of the osmo-convective drying of yacon roots (Smallanthus sonchifolius). Applied Thermal Engineering, 63(1), pp. 23-32.  
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, Azharul, Brown, Richard J., & Kumar, Chandan (2014) Determination of effective moisture diffusivity of banana using thermogravimetric analysis. Procedia Engineering, 90, pp. 538-543.
   
• Kumar, Chandan, Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, Azharul, Millar, Graeme J., & Amin, Zakaria Mohd (2014) Temperature redistribution modelling during intermittent microwave convective heating. Procedia Engineering, 90, pp. 544-549.
   
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, Azharul, & Kumar, Chandan (2013) Effect of temperature distribution on predicting quality of microwave dehydrated food. Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences, 5, pp. 562-568.
   
• Kumar, Chandan, Karim, Azharul, & Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal (2013) Intermittent drying of food products : a critical review. Journal of Food Engineering, 121, pp. 48-57. 
   

Conference Paper

• Welsh, Zachary, Kumar, Chandan, & Karim, Azharul (2017) Preliminary investigation of the flow distribution in an innovative Intermittent Convective Microwave Dryer (IMCD). InEnergy Procedia, Elsevier BV, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, pp. 465-470. 
• Pham, Nghia Duc, Kumar, Chandan, Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Khan, Md. Imran H., Martens, Wayde N., & Karim, Azharul (2016) Effect of different power ratio mode of intermittent microwave convective drying on quality attributes of kiwifruit slices. In Yoshinor, ITAYA (Ed.) 20th International Drying Symposium, 7-10 August 2016, Gifu, Japan. (Unpublished) 
• Kumar, Chandan, Saha, Suvash C., Sauret, Emilie, Karim, Azharul, & Gu, YuanTong (2016) Mathematical modelling of heat and mass transfer during Intermittent Microwave-Convective Drying (IMCD) of food materials. In Proceedings of the 10th Australasian Heat and Mass Transfer Conference: Selected, Peer Reviewed Papers, School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, pp. 171-176. 
• Kumar, Chandan, Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Farrell, Troy W., Millar, Graeme J., & Karim, Azharul (2014) Multiphase porous media model for heat and mass transfer during drying of agricultural products. In 19th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, 8-11 December 2014, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC. 
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, Azharul, Kumar, Chandan, & Brown, Richard J. (2014) Effect of cell wall properties of plant tissue on porosity and shrinkage of dried apple.In Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Food Properties (ICFP2014), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, M.A., & Kumar, Chandan (2013) Better understanding of food material on the basis of water distribution using Thermogravimetric analysis.In International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Materials Engineering (ICMIME2013), 1-3 November 2013, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. 
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Karim, Azharul, & Kumar, Chandan (2013) Effect of moisture and temperature distribution on dried food microstructure and porosity. InProceedings of From Model Foods to Food Models: The DREAM Project International Conference, Nantes, France. 
• Kumar, Chandan, Karim, Azharul, Saha, Suvash C., Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Brown, Richard J., & Biswas, Dipankar (2012) Multiphysics modelling of convective drying of food materials. In Proceedings of the Global Engineering, Science, and Technology Conference, Global Institute of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
• Kumar, Chandan, Karim, Azharul, Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, & Miller, Graeme (2012) Modeling heat and mass transfer process during convection drying of fruit. In The 4th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM2012), Crowne Plaza, Gold Coast, Australia. 
• Kumar, Chandan, Razzaque , Muhammed Mahbubur, & Das, Debabrata (2009) Analysis of a negatively buoyant jet. In International Conference on Mechanical Engineering ICME2009, 26-28th December, 2009, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
• Kumar, Chandan, Millar, Graeme J., Farrell, Troy W., & Karim, Azharul (2015) Multiphase porous media transport in apple tissue during drying. In 12th International Congress on Engineering and Food (ICEF12), 14-18 June 2015, Québec City Convention Centre, Québec City.
• Joardder, Mohammad Uzzal Hossain, Kumar, Chandan, Karim, Azharul, & Brown, Richard J. (2013) Fractal dimension of dried foods : a correlation between microstructure and porosity.In Food Structures, Digestion and Health International Conference, 21 – 24 October 2013, Bayview Eden Hotel, Melbourne, VIC.
• Kumar, Chandan (2015) Modelling intermittent microwave convective drying (IMCD) of food materials. PhD by Publication, Queensland University of Technology.