Abstract for presentation at Chemeca 2007

Principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out to examine the relationship between different macro-composition levels (Protein, Moisture, Fat, Ash, Salt, Carbohydrate (CHO)) and dielectric properties (dielectric constant (ε), dielectric loss factor (ε), loss tangent and penetration depth (D_p)) at both microwave frequencies (MW) (896 MHz, 915M Hz and 2450 MHz) and radio frequency (RF) (27.12MHz) and thermal properties (thermal conductivity (TC) and specific heat capacity (SHC)) of a luncheon roll meat batter in this work. Results revealed that added salt had a major impact on dielectric properties and ΔT though no impact on thermal properties was noted. Fat had an influence on thermal properties and a lesser influence than salt on dielectric properties, though no significant effect (P≥0.05) on ΔT was found across the range examined. The high moisture content of lean made it difficult to isolate the impact of added water as increasing its addition level decreased the amount of added lean resulting in no net chance in the moisture content across the range examined.