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Abstract

Heat and mass (moisture) transfer during deep-frying of frozen composite food was simultaneously modeled using the moving boundary concept. An explicit finite difference method was used to solve the proposed model. A model food composed of a chicken breast coated with batter at both ends was used to validate the predicted center temperature during frying at the specified oil temperatures. Thermal denaturation of actin was, in this study, chosen as the quality index of the meat-based product being fried, and its corresponding kinetic parameters were experimentally determined from the DSC data with the assumption of a single-step irreversible reaction. Good agreement between the predicted and observed results could be obtained when a 0.3 mm vapor gap between material layers was added to the proposed mathematical model. Sensitivity studies showed that the varying oil temperature of +10 O C did not dramatically affect the center temperature profile of the product. Oppositely, the center temperature of the product was notably affected by the gap width in the order of 0.1 mm and the batter thickness in the order of 1 mm.