A review on microwave baking of foods

Abstract

Summary Microwaves interact with polar molecules and charged particles of food to generate heat. There are differences between the heating mechanisms of microwave and conventional heating. The use of microwave heating has the advantage of saving energy and time, improving both nutritional quality and acceptability of some foods by consumers. Microwave ovens are successfully used both in homes and in the food service industry. However, there are still problems in perfecting microwave baking, therefore it is a popular research area. The main problems found to occur in microwave‐baked food products are low volume, tough or firm texture, lack of browning and flavour development. Recent studies aim to improve the quality of microwave‐baked products. This article reviews the basic principles of microwave baking, problems commonly occurring in microwave‐baked products and finally studies published concerning microwave‐baked products.

Oxidation Changes of Vegetable Oils during Microwave Heating

“…Bipolar water molecules are rotated in accordance with changes in the alternating electromagnetic field, which leads to the intermolecular friction and overcoming intermolecular forces, thus creating heat and leads to rapid heating of material. Microwave can penetrate to the depth of material, according to the dielectric parameters, thereby heating the material at the same time, both inside and on the surface (Sumnu 2001).…”

Microwave processing of meat

“…In addition to industrial applications of microwaves in meat tempering, thawing and cooking, microwave was used to detect the fraudulent addition of water in meat products. By using microwave, a nondestructive method was developed for measuring fat in fish and meat, measuring water activity in protein gels and also sensory controlling meat and fish freshness based on the change in dielectric properties (Kent et al 1993;2000, 2001Kent 1990;Boggaard et al 2003;Clerjon et al 2003;Tejada et al 2007;Clerjon & Damez 2007). …”

“…Microwave heating was primly applied in agriculture, in grain drying and insect control. In addition, it was used for food drying, blanching, pasteurization and cooking (Chen et al, 1971;Lin & Li, 1971;Maurer et al, 1971;Bhartia et al, 1973;Nelson, 1973;Jaynes, 1975;Avisse & Varaquaux, 1977;Nykvist & Decareau, 1976;Sobiech, 1980;Shivhare et al, 1994;Tulasidas et al, 1995;Begum & Brewer, 2001;Hong et al, 2001;Sumnu, 2001;Ramesh et al, 2002;Beaudry et al, 2003;Severini et al, 2004;Williams et al, 2004;Zhang et al, 2004). Frozen materials are usually thawed or tempered before further processing in food industry.…”

Recent Advances in the Studies of Bread Baking Process and Their Impacts on the Bread Baking Technology

“…Similarly, in the case of a microwave baking oven, product is baked at low environment temperature and short time. Not only the lack of baking color and flavor, but condensation at the product surface is also a major problem of the microwave baked products (Sumnu, 2001). To overcome the problem, in one study, airflow velocity was increased.…”