Non-uniformity of surface temperatures after microwave heating of poultry meat

Microwave energy has the potential to raise the surface temperatures of mea t rapidly for a short period of time sufficient to reduce bacterial numbers significantly without causing physical changes to the meat. Studies have i nvestigated the ability of a standard domestic microwave oven (2450 MHz; IE C 1192 W), an experimental repeatable microwave cavity (2450 MHz; IEC 1139 W) and a number of shielding techniques to achieve uniform surface temperat ure distributions on pieces of poultry meat. In the domestic oven temperatu re differences of up to 60 and 80 degrees C were found between different po ints on the surface of the same sample after 30 s and 3 minutes of heating respectively. The use of a standard cavity and shielding resulted in a diff erence of less than 5 degrees C between the average surface temperature on the edge and middle of regular slabs of chicken after 30 s exposure. Result s show that microwave heating, using 2450 MHz, is unlikely to produce consi stently uniform enough surface temperatures on meat to reduce bacterial num bers without surface damage.