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A 915-MHz Microwave-Circulated Water Combination (MCWC) heating technology was validated for a macaroni and cheese product using inoculated pack studies. Before the tests, heat resistances of a Clostridium sporogenes (PA 3679) spore crop were determined in neutral phosphate buffer and macaroni and cheese product. Trays of macaroni and cheese products were subjected to 3 processing levels: target process (F 0 = 2.4), under target process (F 0 = 1.2), and over target process (F 0 = 4.8). The inoculated packs were evaluated by count-reduction method and end-point method. The microbial results showed that microbial destruction resulting from MCWC heating technology matched the calculated degree of sterilization (F 0 value). This study suggests that the MCWC heating technology has potential in sterilizing packaged foods.

The electrical conductivity of food components is critical to ohmic heating. Food components of different electrical conductivities heat at different rates. While equal electrical conductivities of all phases are desirable, real food products may behave differently. In the present study involving chicken chow mein consisting of a sauce and different solid components, celery, water chestnuts, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and chicken, it was observed that the sauce was more conductive than all solid components over the measured temperature range. To improve heating uniformity, a blanching method was developed to increase the ionic content of the solid components. By blanching different solid components in a highly conductive sauce at 100 degrees C for different lengths of time, it was possible to adjust their conductivity to that of the sauce. Chicken chow mein samples containing blanched particulates were compared with untreated samples with respect to ohmic heating uniformity at 60 Hz up to 140 degrees C. All components of the treated product containing blanched solids heated more uniformly than untreated product. In sensory tests, 3 different formulations of the blanched product showed good quality attributes and overall acceptability, demonstrating the practical feasibility of the blanching protocol.

This article introduces a new concept, the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) state diagram, in the context of food shelf-life stability as affected by the molecular mobility of the food matrix. Our literature review shows that some shelf-life-related changes cannot be explained or predicted by the current a w and glass transition temperature concepts. This article presents the theoretical principles and some experimental evidence of the NMR state diagram concept that could be complementary to the a w and glass transition concepts. An NMR state diagram is a curve of NMR relaxation time versus temperature. Some of the curve features were found to correlate highly to the physiochemical states and changes of food polymers, for example, caking, stickiness, and firming. The potential applications of this concept in quality and safety of food products, especially dry and intermediate moist foods, may include ingredients screening, prediction of physiochemical changes, chemical degradation, and microbiological activity. The goal concept of this article is to provoke more in-depth studies to analyze the relationships among NMR relaxation, molecular mobility, and stability of foods.

Determination of T c , vortex creation and vortex imaging of a superconducting Nb film using low-temperature magnetic force microscopy A honeycomb array of submicrometer holes in a Nb superconducting thin film has been fabricated to investigate the flux pinning effect. It is found that the minima positions reveal two regimes characterized by the matching fields and the fractional ones. It is believed that the complex behavior may come from more than one vortex being captured per pinning site. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the saturation number of vortices per pinning site together with vortex-vortex interaction gives the complex vortex configurations.