EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE, MOISTURE AND FAT C ONTENTS ON THE THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF MEATS

Meat consists mainly of water, protein and fat. The thermal conductivi ty of meats varies depending on the composition. For measurement of th e thermal conductivity, there are two methods, i.e., steady-state meth od and non-steady-state method. Minced lean meat (beef, pork or chicke n) was mixed with different amounts of fat, and the thermal conductivi ties of these test samples were measured in the temperature range of 5 to 60 degrees C, using a plane heat source method and a heat wire met hod. In the plane heat source method the thermal conductivity slightly increased with temperature in proportion to the increase of meat samp le, while the heat wire method was little or not affected by the tempe rature. From a practical standpoint, the heat wire method seems to be more convenient than the plane heat source method for the determinatio n of the thermal conductivity of meats. The relations between the mois ture content, fat content and thermal conductivity were shown exponeti al proportion with positive or negative, respectively. The empirical e quations for the thermal conductivity of beef were as follows: lambda( p) = -0.217 + 0.008 x(1) + 0.002 x(2) lambda(h) = -5.214 + 0.078 x(1) + 0.054 x(2) where, lambda(p) and lambda(h) are the thermal conductivi ties (W/m . K) by the plane heat source method and the heat wire metho d, respectively, and x(1) represents the moisture content (%) and x(2) is the crude fat content (%).