Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247

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Trends in Food Science & Technology

journal homepage: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/trends-in-food-science-
and-technology

Review

Microwave processing techniques and their recent applications in the

food industry
Qiushan Guo a, b, c, Da-Wen Sun a, b, c, d, *, Jun-Hu Cheng a, b, c, **, Zhong Han a, b, c
a
School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
b
Academy of Contemporary Food Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China
c
Engineering and Technological Research Centre of Guangdong Province on Intelligent Sensing and Process Control of Cold Chain Foods, Guangzhou Higher
Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China
d
Food Refrigeration and Computerized Food Technology (FRCFT), Agriculture and Food Science Centre, University College Dublin, National University of
Ireland, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Background: Microwave processing techniques have been extensively used in the food industry due to its
Received 12 April 2017 significant reduction in cooking time and energy consumption. Microwave processing technologies such
Received in revised form as microwave drying, heating and sterilizing play a significant role in food quality and safety control.
10 June 2017
However, few reviews have been published in recent years summarizing the latest developments in the
Accepted 7 July 2017
application of microwave technology in the food industry.
Available online 10 July 2017
Scope and approach: This review focuses on recent applications of microwave processing technologies
including microwave drying, heating, and sterilizing in fruit (banana, apple, olive, sour cherries, pome-
Keywords:
Microwave drying
granate arils, blueberries, kiwifruit, aronia, strawberry, and grape tomato), vegetables (potato, bamboo
Microwave heating shoot, purslane leaves, onion, green bean, pumpkin, eggplant, edamame, sea tangle, garlic, kale, red
Microwave sterilization ~ o peppers, and
cabbage, tomato, cassava, lentils, chickpea, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, jalapen
Meat coriander foliage), and meat products (sardine fish, restructured silver carp slices, sea cucumber, beef
Fruit and vegetable semitendinosus muscle, bovine supraspinatus muscle, camel longissimus dorsi muscle, foal meat, bovine
gluteus medium muscle, chicken steak, mature cows semimembranosus and semitendinosus muscles,
kavurma (a ready-to-eat meat product), salmon, cod, drumettes, and beef slices), changes in product
quality as affected with microwave processing are discussed in details, and future directions of research
are presented.
Key findings and conclusions: Microwave drying has the advantages of low energy consumption and high
efficiency as compared to conventional drying, while producing more porous structure of foods. Mi-
crowave drying usually combines with other conventional drying to enhance the quality of a food
product. Compared with the traditional method, microwave heating or cooking can generally retain
higher levels of bioactive components, antioxidant activity and attractive color of vegetables, while
microwave cooking with water can cause a serious drop in nutrients due to leaching and thermal lia-
bility. Microwave sterilization has the capacity to completely inactivate microorganisms and effectively
destroy enzyme activity, and less effect on antioxidant activity, texture and color of food products
compared with conventional pasteurization.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with the frequency

* Corresponding author. School of Food Science and Engineering, South China
varies from 300 MHz to 300 GHz (Chandrasekaran, Ramanathan, &
University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China. Basak, 2013). The frequency of the microwave oven is defined to
** Corresponding author. School of Food Science and Engineering, South China avoid interference with communications. The lower the microwave
University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China. frequency, the better the penetration. Generally speaking, to bal-
E-mail address: [email protected] (D.-W. Sun).
ance efficiency and cost, home microwave frequency is 2.45 GHz,
URL: http://www.ucd.ie/refrig, http://www.ucd.ie/sun

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2017.07.007
0924-2244/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247 237

potential microorganisms in food to ensure food safety, but can also

Nomenclature inactivate the enzyme to maintain the nutrition of food (Chen et al.,
2016; Marszałek, Mitek, & Ska˛ pska, 2015). Increase in microwave
L Lightness (CIELab tristimulus color values) power and time increases the effectiveness (Valero, Cejudo, &
a Redness (CIELab tristimulus color values) García-Gimeno, 2014). In addition, the non-uniformity of micro-
b Yellowness (CIELab tristimulus color values) wave sterilization can influence the quality of the product and
Deff Effective moisture diffusivity shorten the shelf life.
R2 Determination coefficient Due to the above advantages, microwave processing techniques
RMSE Root mean square error have been extensively used in the food industry. However, few
reviews have been published in recent years summarizing the latest
developments. Therefore, this review focuses on the applications of
microwave processing technologies in the last few years. The
while industrial microwave frequency is 915 MHz or 2.45 GHz. The technologies covered include microwave drying, heating or cook-
microwave field is an alternating magnetic field, in which, polarity ing, and sterilizing in vegetable, fruit and meat processing. Atten-
molecules from the original random thermal motion changes ac- tions are paid to the quality changes of food product after
cording to the orientation of the electric field direction (2.45 billion microwave processing and future research directions.
times per second) (Mene ndez et al., 2010). The ability of food ma-
terial to convert microwave energy into heat can be understood by 2. Microwave drying
its dielectric properties (Franco, Yamamoto, Tadini, & Gut, 2015;
Curet, Rouaud, & Boillereaux, 2014). Dielectric properties show 2.1. Mechanism of microwave drying
the nature of electrostatic energy saving and loss in the electric
field, usually expressed as dielectric constant and dielectric loss. Microwave drying, such as vacuum-microwave drying, hot air-
Non-uniformity is a characteristic of microwave processing. The microwave drying, microwave-far infrared combination drying,
microwave pattern is responsible for creating a hot spot and cold microwave-convective drying and microwave-freeze drying, is a
spot, and the hot spot is concentrated in a region where the elec- complex process involving heat and mass transfer, which is based
tromagnetic field intensity is higher (Kumar, Saha, Sauret, Karim, & on the volumetric heating (Pu & Sun, 2015, 2016b, 2017; Cui, Xu,
Gu, 2016). Therefore, it is important to improve the uniformity Sun, & Chen, 2005; Cui, Xu, & Sun, 2003, 2004a, 2004b). Vapor is
during microwaving. Microwaving has been enormously applied in generated inside a food item and then spread through internal
the field of food processing such as drying, heating or cooking, pressure gradient. Because of the strong penetrability of micro-
pasteurization and preservation of foods (Chandrasekaran et al., wave, food inside and outside are heated at the same time and the
2013). temperature of food rises simultaneously.
Like cooling (Sun & Hu, 2003; Wang & Sun, 2002a, 2002b; Sun & Microwave drying translates the high frequency electromag-
Wang, 2000; Sun, 1997; McDonald, Sun, & Kenny, 2000; Sun, & netic energy into heat, thus liquid moisture is intensively evapo-
Brosnan, 1999; Zheng, & Sun, 2004; Wang & Sun, 2004) and rated and transported toward the food material surface (Li, Wang, &
freezing (Kiani, Zhang, Delgado, & Sun, 2011; Ma et al., 2015; Xie, Kudra, 2011). In the process of microwave drying, two successive
Sun, Xu, & Zhu, 2015; Cheng, Sun, & Pu 2016; Pu, Sun, Ma, & stages should be considered: liquid evaporation (Arballo,
Cheng, 2015; Cheng, Sun, Zhu, & Zhang, 2017, Xie, Sun, Zhu, & Pu, Campan ~ one, & Mascheroni, 2010), and drying consisting of three
2016), drying (Cui, Sun, Chen, & Sun, 2008; Yang, Sun, & Cheng, stages including heating up, constant rate drying and falling rate
2017; Pu, & Sun, 2016a) is a common processing method used in drying (Bal, Kar, Satya, & Naik, 2010).
the food industry. In particular, microwave drying has many ad-
vantages, including lower shrinkage, lower bulk density, and higher 2.2. Moisture migration and distribution during drying process
rehydration ratio, dehydration rate and energy saving than tradi-
tional drying (Aydogdu, Sumnu, & Sahin, 2015; Duan, Zhang, During constant and falling rate-drying periods, effective
Mujumdar, & Wang, 2010; Horuz & Maskan, 2015). However, moisture diffusion phenomenon shows an overall mass transport
more porous structure of foods caused by microwave drying occurs property of water in the food material, including liquid and vapor
due to faster drying rate when compared with traditional drying diffusion, vaporization-condensation, hydrodynamic flow and
(Aydogdu et al., 2015; Horuz & Maskan, 2015). In addition, over- other possible mass transfer processes. The effective moisture
heating normally results in scorching and the production of off- diffusion coefficient is affected by many factors such as composi-
flavors especially during the final stage of microwave drying tion, moisture content, temperature, and the porosity of food ma-
(Horuz, Bozkurt, Karataş, & Maskan, 2017). Usually, in order to terial, which can be explained by the Fick's diffusion equation, and
improve the drying rate and enhancing the quality of products, the it is the only physical mechanism to transfer the water to surface.
microwave drying method and other traditional drying methods In order to understand the moisture migration and distribution,
are employed in combination. Jiang, Zhang, Mujumdar, and Lim (2012) employed a nuclear
Microwave heating or cooking (Po  łtorak et al., 2015) can retain magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study banana dried by
high levels of bioactive components, antioxidant activity and microwave-freeze drying, as the spin-spin relaxation time, which is
attractive color of vegetables, when cooking without water or with the time of revocation of transverse magnetization, and peak area
a small amount of water (Akdaş & Bakkalbaşı, 2016; Pellegrini et al., can reflect the nature and content of water. With spin-spin relax-
2010; Tian et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2014). It can also decrease the anti- ation time increasing, the three peaks represent strongly bound
nutritional factors, meanwhile increase in in-vitro protein di- water, bound water, and free water components, respectively. From
gestibility (Hefnawy, 2011; Xu et al., 2016; Yang, Hsu, & Yang, 2014). Fig. 1, it can be seen that as the drying process continues, the area of
However, microwave cooking with massive water can cause a great the three peaks is smaller, which means that the moisture content
drop in nutrients due to leaching and thermal liability (Dolinsky of food is falling. At the same time, the relaxation time of the three
et al., 2015; de Lima et al., 2017). peaks is close to 0, which means that the structure of water and
Microwave sterilization can not only effectively reduce the food are closer. During banana chips dried by microwave-freeze
drying, from the moisture content and drying rate curves, drying
238 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247

Fig. 1. Spin-spin relaxation times (T2) of different banana chips dried by MFD (Jiang et al., 2012).

for 3 h was the demarcation point of the sublimation drying stage power, Deff increases accordingly during microwave drying. For
(Jiang et al., 2012). At the sublimation drying stage, most of the free example, by increasing the microwave output power from 180 W to
water and bound water was removed, while during the desorption 900 W, Deff of purslane leaves dried by microwave drying increased
drying stage, the unfrozen water could also be removed. Wang, €
from 5.913
1011 m2/s to 1.872
1010 m2/s (Demirhan & Ozbek,
Zhang, and Mujumdar (2010) investigated potato slices dried by 2010). A higher microwave power usually results in a more porous
microwave-freeze drying and showed that the sublimation period structure and increases the temperatures of the food material. In
could last for about 4 h, followed by the desorption phase, during addition, high temperatures usually cause the denaturization of cell
which, microwave drying had a lower drying rate, because the membranes and phase transitions, greatly damaging the samples.
dielectric constant of ice is smaller than water. Jiang, Zhang, and Bound water in damaged tissues is easier to be removed as
Mujumdar (2010) showed that during sublimation drying, water compared with that in less damaged tissues during microwave
could absorb microwave energy, leading to hot spots. Partial drying. In order to predict the microwave drying process, various
melting in the frozen area could thus cause very uneven heating. models have been used to fit the experimental data. However,
The ice melts into liquid water with microwave input could block based on Table 1, it seems that the Midilli et al. model is a robust
pore and lead to the expansion of the food structure (Jiang et al., model for describing microwave drying processes.
2010), as evidenced by Wang, Zhang, and Arun (2013), who
showed that restructured fish slices from silver carp were 2.3. Effects of microwave drying on food quality attributes
expanded by microwave-vacuum drying (4, 6, and 8 mm thickness),
compared to other drying methods such as air drying, freeze drying The quality of food products has some changes during micro-
and vacuum drying (4 mm thickness), which had different degrees wave drying. These changes include optical properties such as color
of contraction. and appearance, sensory properties such as odor, taste and flavor,
In the process of microwave drying, effective moisture diffusion structural properties such as density, porosity and specific volume,
coefficient plays an important role as mass transfer is the key to the textural properties, rehydration properties such as rehydration rate
dehydration process. Table 1 summarizes some relevant studies. and rehydration capacity, and nutritional characteristics such as
From Table 1, it can be seen that with the increase of the microwave vitamins and proteins.
 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247 239

Table 1
Effective moisture diffusivity of foods during microwave drying.

Material Power (W) Deff (m2/s) Change Simulation model R2 References

Bamboo shoot slices 140e350 4.153
1010 [ Wang and Singh model 0.985 Bal et al. (2010)
22.835
1010
Sardine fish 200e500 7.158
108 [ Midilli et al. model 0.999 Darvishi et al. (2013)
3.408
107
Purslane leaves 180e900 5.913
1011 [ Midilli et al. model 0.997 €
Demirhan and Ozbek (2010)
1.872
1010
Onion slices 328e557 2.59
107 [ Page model 0.995 Demiray, Seker, and Tulek (2016)
5.08
107
Apple slices 200e600 3.93
107 [ Midilli et al. model 0.999 Zarein et al. (2015)
2.27
106
Green Bean Slices 180e800 1.387
108 [ Midilli et al. model 0.999 Doymaz, Kipcak, and Piskin (2016)
3.724
108
Olive pomace 170e510 3.55
109 [ Midilli et al. model 0.999 Sadi and Meziane (2015)
20.47
109

‘[’ means that with the increase in microwave power, Deff increases accordingly.

Many investigations have been conducted on the changes of (Punica granatum L.) arils dried by microwave drying produced
food products in nutritional characteristics during microwave more porous structure than those treated by hot-air drying with
drying. Nawirska-Olszan  ska, Ste˛ pien
 , and Biesiada (2017) showed faster drying rate, which greatly destroyed the integrity of the tis-
that at the power of 100 W, the content of total polyphenols, sue (Aydogdu et al., 2015; Horuz & Maskan, 2015). Moreover, the
bioactive compounds (chlorophyll aþb, carotenoids) and anti- low bulk density correlated well with a low degree of shrinkage.
oxidative properties of pumpkin slices dried by fountain- Therefore, eggplant slices and pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)
microwave were greater than that using the power of 250 W, and arils processed by microwave drying could achieve lower shrinkage
their results differed statistically. This was an opposite of the and bulk densities and higher rehydration ratio than hot-air drying
conclusion reported by Al Juhaimi et al. (2016), who showed that method (Aydogdu et al., 2015; Horuz & Maskan, 2015). The
with a decrease in microwave power from 540 W to 180 W, the total maximum compression force of edamame subjected to microwave
phenolic contents and antioxidant activity values of apple slices drying was lower than that from hot-air drying (Lv, Zhang,
deteriorated. The possible reason might be that in a small range of Bhandari, Yang, & Wang, 2017). Furthermore, Zielinska, Sadowski,
power (100 W - 250 W), increasing microwave power could cause and Błaszczak (2015) showed similar results about the hardness,
rapid increase in temperature, and a temperature too high could chewiness and gumminess of blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum
destroy the nutrients of foods. However, when the microwave po- L.), which were several times lower by microwave-vacuum drying
wer showed a large change (180 W - 540 W), higher microwave than by hot-air drying, and Wang et al. (2013) indicated that
power could shorten the heating time, thus improving the reten- restructured silver carp slices dried by microwave-vacuum drying
tion rate of nutrients preferably. Wojdyło, Figiel, Lech, Nowicka, and had higher rehydration ratio as well as lower water holding ca-
Oszmian  ski (2013) indicated that when sour cherries processed by pacity, hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, and chewiness than
vacuum-microwave drying, the contents of phenolic compounds, other dying methods such as air drying, freeze drying and vacuum
antioxidant activity, and color that is related to anthocyanins con- drying. Generally speaking, compared with other drying methods
tent were lower when drying at high temperature than those at low such as hot-air drying, freeze drying and vacuum drying, micro-
temperature. Similar results were reported for apple slices dried by wave assisted drying including microwave drying (Horuz &
intermittent microwave-convective air drying by Aghilinategh, Maskan, 2015; Lv et al., 2017), microwave-vacuum drying (Wang
Rafiee, Hosseinpur, Omid, and Mohtasebi (2015). In microwave et al., 2013; Zielinska et al., 2015) and microwave-far infrared
drying, a higher temperature could destroy the nutrients of foods to combination drying (Aydogdu et al., 2015) could cause greater
a greater extent, especially heat sensitive components. damage on the cohesive forces between cells, producing more
Textural and rehydration properties are also affected during porous structure, thus having low bulk density, low degree of
microwave drying. Nawirska-Olszan  ska et al. (2017) showed that shrinkage and higher rehydration ratio of the dried food products.
during fountain-microwave drying of pumpkin slices, a high mi- The energy consumption of microwave drying has also been
crowave power resulted in decreased compression work, which widely studied in order to obtain a minimum energy consumption
was due to the partial dissolution of the middle lamellae of the under the experimental conditions. Darvishi, Azadbakht, Rezaeiasl,
samples. In addition, Sarimeseli (2011) demonstrated that the and Farhang (2013) observed that when microwave power was
rehydrating capacity of coriander leaves processed by microwave 500 W, sardine fish dried by microwave drying obtained a mini-
drying decreased as the microwave power output increased mum energy consumption at four different microwave powers
(180e900 W), which may be attributed to cellular break down of (200, 300, 400 and 500 W), Han et al. (2016) found that sea tangle
the leaves during the drying process. This is in agreement with dried with preheating for 20 min in a microwave dryer followed by
those reported by Horuz and Maskan (2015). Therefore, microwave drying at 100  C in a far-infrared dryer consumed the least energy
drying at low microwave power should be able to maintain more consumption with only 4.78 kJ/kg water, while Zarein, Samadi, and
tissue integrity of the food material than microwave drying at high Ghobadian (2015) reported that the energy efficiency of apple slices
microwave power. processed by microwave drying was 54.34% at power level of
On the other hand, the effects of microwave drying, microwave- 600 W and 17.42% at 200 W. As reducing the microwave power
vacuum drying, and microwave-far infrared combination drying generally increases the drying time, it is thus not easy to assess the
were also reported on textural and rehydration properties as changing trend of energy consumption. For example, increasing the
compared with other drying method including hot-air drying, microwave output power could shorten the microwave drying time
freeze drying and vacuum drying. Eggplant slices dried by of sardine fish, which was as high as 51% (Darvishi et al., 2013). In
microwave-far infrared combination drying and pomegranate addition, compared with freeze drying, sea cucumber treated by
240 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247

microwave drying saved 32% energy (Duan et al., 2010). Calín- intensity decays to 1/e (approximately 37%) of the original value
Sanchez, Figiel, Wojdyło, Szarycz, and Carbonell-Barrachina (Vadivambal & Jayas, 2008). The hot spot and cold spot are found to
(2013) also found that garlic slices dried by a combined method be due to the standing wave (Kumar et al., 2016). The hot spot is
consisting of convective pre-drying followed by vacuum- concentrated in the region of high electric field intensity.
microwave drying required less energy consumption than pro- Table 3 summarizes the temperature distribution models during
cessed by the traditional convective drying. Therefore, it is evident microwave heating. Uneven heating is an intrinsic characteristic of
that microwave drying and vacuum-microwave drying consume the microwave heating and achieving heating uniformity is a
less energy than freeze drying and convective drying because the challenge in microwaving, which could be overcome by employing
microwave is directly applied to the material and there is no a feedback control loop to control the heating process. Therefore, it
additional thermal loss, so the thermal efficiency is high. is important to know the temperature distribution of the foods in
The improvements of foods processed by the microwave drying the process of microwave heating.
are listed in Table 2. Reducing vacuum-microwave drying power
from 480 W to 120 W could be recommended for drying sour 3.2. Effects of microwave heating on chemical components of food
cherries with respect to the retention of maximum contents of total products
phenolics, especially anthocyanins, maximum antioxidant capacity,
as well as minimum color change (Wojdyło et al., 2013). Consid- In microwave heating, changes associated with chemical com-
ering better color, shrinkage, rehydration capacity and drying time, ponents of food products are mainly related to the cook loss,
the optimum microwave drying condition for pomegranate (Punica antioxidant activity, bioactive components, and anti-nutritional
granatum L.) arils was established at 350 W (Horuz & Maskan, components including trypsin inhibitor, haemagglutinin activity,
2015). Considering the drying time, discoloration, rehydration ra- tannins, saponins and phytic acid. Chang et al. (2011) reported the
tio, and energy consumption during combined microwave and far- relationships between perimysium granulation, endomysium
infrared ray drying, the optimal drying condition for achieving high granulation, thermal denaturation and shrinkage of collagen and
quality sea tangle was 15 min of preheating in a microwave dryer temperature (Fig. 2), and showed that during microwave heating
and drying at 100  C in a far-infrared dryer (Han et al., 2016). The and water bath heating, the higher the internal endpoint temper-
optimum condition of intermittent microwave-convective drying ature or the longer the heating time of beef semitendinosus muscle,
for apple slices was 1.78 m/s (air velocity), 40  C (air temperature), the higher the insoluble collagen contents were obtained, which
4.48 (pulse ratio), and 600 W (microwave power) (Aghilinategh could be accounted for the thermal denaturation and shrinkage of
et al., 2015). Therefore, it can be noted that different optimal dry- collagen. Musto, Faraone, Cellini, and Musto (2014) indicated that
ing conditions should be obtained for drying different types of during microwave heating, cooking loss increased significantly
foods. with time, and consequently with increasing endpoint core tem-
peratures of bovine supraspinatus muscle. In addition, cooking loss
3. Microwave heating of the camel longissimus dorsi muscle were significantly affected
by thermal treatment, being higher after microwaving (~43%) and
3.1. Mechanism of microwave heating lower after roasting (~34%) and braising (~30%), which could be
attributed to the high loss of water and fat caused by protein
Conventional heating relies on heat conduction and convection. denaturation and disintegration of the texture matrix with micro-
However, microwave heating, such as microwave-convective wave treatment (Yarmand, Nikmaram, Emam Djomeh, &
heating and combination of microwave, convection, and radiant Homayouni, 2013). This is similar to that reported by Domínguez,
heating, is based on volumetric heating, which heats the foods Go mez, Fonseca, and Lorenzo (2014), who showed that the total
instantaneously (Kappe, 2013). The electric field component of the loss percentage of foal meat treated by microwave heating (32.5%)
microwave induces the rotation of dipoles in foods and the heat is was higher than by grilling (22.5%), frying (23.8%) and roasting
generated by the friction of molecules (Aguilar-Reynosa et al., (26.7%). Therefore, during microwave cooking, protein denatur-
2017). ation and cooking loss of foods increase with the increase in
Polar molecules cannot synchronously oscillate with a magnetic heating time or temperature, and the total cooking loss is higher
field and have a short delay. The delay converts magnetic energy than other cooking methods such as grilling, frying, roasting and
into translational energy, thus gradually decreases the amplitude of braising due to no crust formed during microwave cooking.
the microwave. Penetration is a kind of ability that the electro- Many investigations have been conducted on antioxidant ac-
magnetic wave gets through the interior of foods. Electromagnetic tivity and retention of bioactive components of vegetables with
waves travel from the surface of food and spread inside. Because microwave heating. Akdaş and Bakkalbaşı (2016) reported that
the energy is absorbed and then translated into thermal energy, microwave treatment without water was suitable for cooking kale
thus microwave carries the energy in the form of index attenuation. as the retention of ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, and total chlo-
Penetration depth, which is dependent on food composition, is rophylls of kale was 89.4%, 99.8%, 44.7%, respectively. Tian et al.
defined as the distance from the surface of the product before the (2016) observed losses of total phenolics (negligible), total

Table 2
The optimal microwave drying parameters of different foods.

Material Drying method Power Time Air Other References

Temperature Velocity

Pomegranate arils Microwave drying 350 W e e e e Horuz and Maskan (2015)

Sea tangle Combination of microwave and e 15 min e 0.8 m/s Far-infrared of 100  C Han et al. (2016)
far-infrared drying
Apple slices Microwave-convective drying 600 W e 40  C 1.78 m/s Pulse ratio of 4.48 Aghilinategh et al. (2015)
Sour cherries Vacuum-microwave drying Reduction from 480 W e e e Pressure between 4 Wojdyło et al. (2013)
to 120 W and 6 kPa
 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247 241

Table 3
The temperature distribution model of foods during microwave heating.

Simulation method Simulation object Validation method Validation Reference

Physics-based computational temperature TX151 powder with Temperature distribution was Good matching Rakesh, Seo, Datta,
profiles modeling under combination of water (1:10 parts by weight) measured by magnetic resonance McCarthy, and
heating modes such as microwaves, imaging (MRI) McCarthy (2010)
convection, and radiant heating
Using finite difference time domain under Gellan gel cylinder Temperature distribution was The RMSE values ranged Pitchai, Birla, Subbiah,
microwave heating measured by optical fiber sensor from 0.53 to 4.52  C, with Jones, and Thippareddi
at 12 discrete points an average value of 2.02  C (2012)
Modeling of heat and mass transfer during Apple slice Moisture content and R2 ¼ 0.9906 Kumar et al. (2016)
intermittent microwave-convective drying temperature distribution were
(IMCD) of recorded after each cycle
multiphase
porous media
Decoupled-models for modeling microwave Mashed potato Temperature distribution was The averaged RMSE values Chen, Pitchai, Jones,
heating of frozen and fresh materials measured by the fiber-optic were 5.2  C (fresh) and and Subbiah (2015)
sensors at six locations 6.6  C (frozen)

Fig. 2. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs of intramuscular connective tissue for beef semitendinosus muscle heated to endpoint temperature: 50c (e1, e2, e3); 70c
(f1, f2, f3); and 90c (g1, g2, g3) during microwave heating. Magnification were: E1/G1 (
200), E2/G2 (
500), E3 (
3000), F3, G3 (
500). P, perimysium; E, endomysium; CF:
collagenous fibers (Chang et al., 2011).

anthocyanin (14.01%) and chlorogenic acid (20.01%) after micro- water to 300 g sample) after microwave heating, whereas obvious
waving purple-fleshed potatoes without water were much lower changes were observed on losses after stir-frying and boiling. The
than stir-frying, baking, air-frying and frying. Xu et al. (2014) re- retention of bioactive components of vegetables processed by mi-
ported that there was negligible change in total phenolic content crowave is higher than those processed by other cooking methods
and no significant loss of vitamin C of red cabbage (adding 10 mL because of shorter heating time, and without the pretreatment of
242 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247

soaking (Tian et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2014). Therefore, microwave convection heating. In addition, Jouquand et al. (2015) found that
cooking should be done without water or with a small amount of beef burgundy prepared by microwaving perceived tougher texture
water for retaining antioxidant activity and bioactive components. than by convection oven. However, Choi et al. (2016) observed that
However, when massive water is added to foods during micro- the hardness of chicken steak cooked by a microwave oven was
wave heating, the retention of nutrients drops greatly. Dolinsky lower than that cooked with boiled and grilling. Moreover, Mun ~ oz,
et al. (2015) found that microwave cooking with water was not Achaerandio, Yang, and Pujola  (2017) found a significant decrease
recommended to cook selected vegetables owing to significant in the shear force for potato tubers after microwaving because
reduction in the contents of polyphenols (soluble polyphenol and microwaving weakened the cohesive forces between cells. The
hydrolysable polyphenol) of kale (reduction of 23.4%), tomato above contradictive results might be related to different types of
(reduction of 21.9%), and green beans (reduction of 22.9%), while foods and different conditions of the heat treatments. Changing the
steaming with little osmotic exchanges was more suitable for conditions of heat treatment and food samples can change the
maintaining higher levels of their polyphenol concentrations. This texture properties. For example, marination with 10% injected brine
observation was similar to that reported by de Lima et al. (2017), solution (5.6% salt, 4% sodium lactate, 5% lactose, and 0.5% ascor-
who showed that cassava (adding 500 g water to 500 g sample) bate) was used successfully to enhance the tenderness of Semi-
treated by steaming retained more phenolic compounds (retention membranosus and Semitendinosus muscles from Friesian mature
of 236.1%) and antioxidant activity (retention of 308.6%) than by cows cooked by microwave (Pe rez-Juan, Kondjoyan, Picouet, &
microwaving (retention of 164.4% of phenolic and 273.4% of anti- Realini, 2012).
oxidant activity). For bioactive substances of vegetables, microwave On the other hand, many investigations on the color of foods
cooking increased the retention rate to varying degrees because including vegetables and meats with microwave heating were re-
water may cause a softening and rupture of the lignocellulosic ported. Pellegrini et al. (2010) showed that comparing with boiling
structure, enabling those soluble bioactive substances to be and steaming, microwave heating was the best cooking method for
released from the food matrix, while increasing the loss owing to maintaining the color of both fresh and frozen brassica vegetables
leaching and thermal liability. (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower). In addition, comparing
Studies were also performed on the changes of anti-nutritional with other treatments such as boiling and steaming, kale subjected
factors, including trypsin inhibitor, haemagglutinin activity, tan- to microwave heating was awarded the highest scores for the value
nins, saponins and phytic acid due to microwave heating. Hefnawy of b, which depended on chlorophylls and the formation of pheo-
(2011) showed that the anti-nutritional factors in lentils were phytin (Akdaş & Bakkalbaşı, 2016; Armesto, Go  mez-Limia, Carballo,
significantly reduced (a reduction of 93.3% for trypsin inhibitor, & Martínez, 2016). Generally speaking, vegetables cooked in mi-
34.4% for tannins and 39.2% for phytic acid) after microwave crowave can receive the highest scores for color. Armesto et al.
treatment. Moreover, microwave treatment improved the in-vitro (2016) showed that fresh kale had greater color intensity L after
protein digestibility and protein efficiency ratio of lentils microwave cooking for 20 min (from 40.26 to 34.55) and 30 min
(Hefnawy, 2011), which was in agreement with Deng, Padilla- (from 40.26 to 33.26). Similar results were reported by dos Reis
Zakour, Zhao, and Tao (2015), who observed that the phytic acid, et al. (2015), who observed that microwave cooking significantly
trypsin inhibitor activity, tannin and saponin of buckwheat were decreased the L value of fresh cauliflower (from 56.7 to 49.4) and
lowered by 33.4%, 13%, 27.5%, 20.1%, respectively, as well as protein fresh broccoli (from 46.1 to 39.9). However, Zhong, Dolan, and
digestibility was increased by 3.6% after microwave heating. Yang Almenar (2015) found that the L value the frozen broccoli
et al. (2014) noticed that trypsin inhibitors of soybeans were increased after microwaving (from ~21 to ~24) and Xu et al. (2014)
most effectively reduced (76.92% reduction for black soybeans, observed that the L value of red cabbage was slightly enhanced
97.91% reduction for yellow soybeans) by microwaving. In addition, with microwave treatment (from 26.57 to 28.99). The difference
Xu et al. (2016) reported that chickpea with the treatment of between these results could be attributed to the longer cooking
soaking followed by microwave cooking significantly increased in- times used for microwaving by Armesto et al. (2016), and fresh
vitro protein digestibility (increase ratio of 24.4%), and the contents foods used by dos Reis et al. (2015).
of phytate and tannin levels were reduced by 25.3% and 39.8%, The denaturation of proteins affects the changes in color. An
respectively. Therefore, microwave cooking could effectively increased reflection of light arising from light scattering by de-
decrease the anti-nutritional factors and increase in-vitro protein natured proteins causes lesser lightness, while thermal denatur-
digestibility of foods. ation of myoglobin and other proteins causes lesser redness.
Therefore, during microwave heating of foods, an increase in mi-
3.3. Effects of microwave heating on sensory attributes of food crowave power would reduce the exposure time, leading to the
products obvious reduction in the denaturation of myoglobin and other
proteins. For example, Po  łtorak et al. (2015) observed that bovine
During microwave heating, the changes associated with sensory gluteus medium muscle treated by microwave-convection heating
attributes of food products can reflect in texture and color prop- at 100% microwave intensity had lesser lightness, higher redness
erties. Food color changes during thermal processing can be influ- and lesser yellowness than those treated at 30% microwave in-
enced by degradation of pigments, oxidation of ascorbic acid, rez-Juan et al. (2012) reported that Semite-
tensity. Similarly, Pe
enzymatic browning, and non-enzymatic browning (Ling, Tang, ndinosus muscles from Friesian mature cows cooked by
Kong, Mitcham, & Wang, 2014). microwaving at 654 W had lesser lightness, higher redness and
lesser yellowness than those at 182 W. Ozcan € and Bozkurt (2015)
On one hand, effects on texture properties of foods during mi-
crowave heating were studied. Yarmand et al. (2013) noticed that also found that kavurma (one of ready-to-eat meat products)
after microwave heating, the compression force of the camel processed by microwaving possessed lesser lightness, higher
longissimus dorsi muscle was more than twice than that of the raw redness and lesser yellowness with increase of cooking time.
łtorak et al. (2015)
meat because of less solubilization of collagen. Po Therefore, microwave heating of meats should cause lesser light-
showed that the shear force value and the shrinkage rate of bovine ness, higher redness and lesser yellowness by increasing micro-
gluteus medium muscle roasted in a microwave-convection oven wave power levels or time of microwave cooking.
were significantly higher than those roasted with traditional
 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247 243

4. Microwave sterilization Valero et al. (2014) reported that the inactivation rates of Salmo-
nella enteritidis (6.30 log CFU/g) in a potato omelet under micro-
4.1. Mechanism of microwave sterilization wave heating at 300 W, 450 W, 600 W were 0.17 s1, 0.34 s1, 0.67
s1, respectively. It is noticed that the higher the power level, the
The purpose of sterilization is to improve the safety and extend faster the inactivation during microwave sterilization. This was
the shelf life of foods. Microwave pasteurization or sterilization can similar to those reported by Lu, Turley, Dong, and Wu (2011) and
be explained by various mechanisms, such as selective heating, Benlloch-Tinoco, Pina-Pe rez, Martínez-Navarrete, and Rodrigo
electroporation, cell membrane rupture and magnetic field (2014). Lu et al. (2011) indicated that during microwave steriliza-
coupling (Kozempel, Annous, Cook, Scullen, & Whiting, 1998). For tion, after 50 s heating at the high power level of 700 W, more than
example, due to the microwave selective heating, microbial bodies 2.05 log reduction of Salmonella enterica (an initial titer of 107 CFU/
can reach a higher temperature than the surrounding fluid, leading mL) was obtained on grape tomatoes, while heating for 50 s at the
to faster microbial destruction. For the electroporation mechanism, medium power level of 350 W, more than 1.70 log reduction was
the electrical potential across the cell membrane can generate achieved. Benlloch-Tinoco et al. (2014) also showed that the D60  C
pores in cells, resulting in the leakage of cellular material. On the values of the inactivation of L. monocytogenes in a kiwifruit puree at
other hand, in the magnetic field coupling mechanism, vital com- 1000 W, 900 W and 600 W were 17.04 s, 17.35 s, 42.85 s,
ponents of the cell such as protein or DNA coupled in the magnetic respectively.
field can be destroyed. In addition, microwave radiation dose play an important role in
determining the thoroughness of inactivation. It has been proved
4.2. Effects of microwave sterilization on microorganisms that microorganisms can be completely inactivated if microwave
radiation dose reaches a certain level. For example, the complete
Microwave radiation including water-assisted microwave inhibition of bacteria (E. coli, Salmonella enteritidis and Enterococcus
heating and microwave sterilization can be used to control poten- spp.) viability at 106 - 107 MPN/g and spores (Clostridium spor-
tial microorganisms in foods. Table 4 shows the inactivation of ogenes) viability at 106e107 CFU/g on salmon and cod were
pathogens in foods during microwave sterilization. Microwave observed using the microwave treatment with the lethal doses of
sterilization can reduce the colony count of microbes in foods. 430 kJ/g and 1900 kJ/g, respectively (Bauza-Kaszewska, Skowron,
Paluszak, Dobrzan 
 ski, & Srutek, 2014). Therefore cell responses
Moreover, increasing microwave power and sterilization tempera-
ture, or extending the sterilization time could improve the effec- depend on the microwave power levels, and the hypothesis of a
tiveness of microwave sterilization (Valero et al., 2014). specific electromagnetic threshold effect is probably related to the
Microwave sterilization can substantially reduce the microor- temperature increase (Rougier, Prorot, Chazal, Leveque, & Leprat,
ganisms in foods. Generally speaking, different types of foods 2014).
usually inoculate with different types and levels of microorganisms, On the other hand, studies were also performed to examine the
which further shows the requirements for different microwave effects of temperatures on complete microwaving inhibition of
sterilization conditions. De La Vega-Miranda, Santiesteban-Lo  pez, microorganisms. For example, Zeinali, Jamshidi, Khanzadi, and
Lo pez-Malo, and Sosa-Morales (2012) observed a 5.12 log reduction Azizzadeh (2015) showed that chicken meats (drumettes), inocu-
of Salmonella typhimurium on jalapen ~ o pepper at 3
108 CFU/g lated with Listeria monocytogenes (an initial titer of 1.6
106 CFU/
using the water-assisted microwave treatment at 950 W to reach mL), were subjected to the microwave radiation and by enhancing
temperature at 63  C for 25 s, and a 4.45 log reduction of Salmonella the surface temperature of drumettes to higher than 74  C (after the
typhimurium on coriander foliage at 3
108 CFU/g at 63  C for 10 s. end of 60 s of the exposure time), the superficial contamination of
Under the same microwave sterilization conditions (power and drumettes could be completely eliminated, because there was a
temperature), there was a difference between the effect of sterili- significant correlation between the bacterial population and the
zation on jalapen~ o pepper and coriander foliage. In another work, temperature of the samples (p < 0.001, r ¼ 0.879). Jamshidi, Seifi,

Table 4
The inactivation of pathogens in the foods during microwave-assisted sterilizing.

Material Pathogen Concentration of the Sterilization Sterilization condition Inactivation of References

pathogen method pathogens
~ o peppers Salmonella
Jalapen 3
108 CFU/g Water-assisted At 950 W to reach 63  C for 25 s 5.12 log reduction De La Vega-Miranda
typhimurium microwave heating et al. (2012)
Coriander foliage Salmonella 3
108 CFU/g Water-assisted At 950 W to reach 63  C for 10 s 4.45 log reduction De La Vega-Miranda
typhimurium microwave heating et al. (2012)
Grape tomatoes Salmonella enterica The initial titer of Microwave heating At high power level of 700 W More than 2.05 log Lu et al. (2011)
inoculums (25 mL) is for 50 s reduction
107 CFU/mL At medium power level of More than 1.70 log
350 W for 50 s reduction
Salmon and cod E. coli, Salmonella 106-107 MPN/g Microwave About 430 kJ/g (but only 140 kJ/ Theoretical complete Bauza-Kaszewska et al.
enteritidis, (bacteria) and 106 radiation g for Salmonella Enteritidis and inactivation (2014)
Enterococcus spp. e107 CFU/g (spores) E. coli) for bacteria
and Clostridium About 1900 kJ/g for spores
spores
Drumettes Listeria The initial titer of Microwave More than 74  C (after the end Elimination of the Zeinali et al. (2015)
monocytogenes inoculums is radiation of 60 s exposure time) superficial
1.6
106 CFU/mL contamination
Fresh beef slices E. coli O157:H7 3.2
107 CFU/cm2 Microwave More than 70  C (after the end Elimination of the Jamshidi et al. (2010)
radiation of 30 s of the exposure time) superficial
contamination
Potato omelet Salmonella 6.3 log CFU/g Microwave 40 s treatment at 800 W 4.80 log reduction Valero et al. (2014)
enteritidis radiation
244 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247

and Kooshan (2010) also observed the complete inhibition of E. coli texture and color of foods before and after the proposed microwave
O157:H7 (at the level of 3.2
107 CFU/cm2) on fresh beef slices sterilization. Lu et al. (2011) showed no significant changes in the
using the microwave treatment with the surface temperature of firmness of grape tomato (ranging from 2.43 to 2.82 N), with lower
more than 70  C (after the end of 30 s of the exposure time), due to values after treatment. The firmness of jalapen ~ o pepper and cori-
the significant correlation between the bacterial population and ander also remained no significant changes after microwave heat-
the temperature of the samples (p < 0.0001, r ¼ 0.973). ing, which was decreased from 10.93 N to 9.29 N, and was increased
from 6.17 N to 8.21 N, respectively (De La Vega-Miranda et al.,
2012). Generally speaking, when the time of microwave steriliza-
4.3. Effects of microwave sterilization on quality attributes of food tion is short, its effects on texture are minor, for example, when
products microwave sterilization was less than 1 min, the texture of the
grape tomato, jalapen ~ o pepper and coriander remained with no
The effects of microwave sterilization on food quality attributes significant difference (De La Vega-Miranda et al., 2012; Lu et al.,
studied mainly include bioactive substances, antioxidant activity, 2011). However, lengthy microwave sterilization could lower the
enzyme activity, texture and color. Piasek et al. (2011) found that texture properties. On the other hand, for effects on color, De La
the loss of total anthocyanins in aronia subjected to the microwave Vega-Miranda et al. (2012) reported that the color of jalapen ~o
sterilization ranged from 39.7% to 59.1%, which was lower than pepper was significantly affected by microwave sterilization with
those (66.1%e99.8%) treated by thermal processing at 100  C. In the lightness (L) decreasing from 30.38 to 24.35 and from 25.98 to
another work, Marszałek et al. (2015) showed that microwave 19.61 for coriander. However, Lu et al. (2011) indicated that all color
heating was lesser destructive for strawberry pure e than conven- parameters (L, a and b) of grape tomato did not show significant
tional heating, because the lowest losses of total content of poly- changes after microwave heating treatments. The difference be-
phenols (5.7%), total content of anthocyanins (19.2%) and vitamin C tween these results could be attributed to the green vegetable used
(3.4%) in strawberry pure e under continuous microwave heating at by De La Vega-Miranda et al. (2012) and red vegetables used by Lu
90  C (at atmospheric pressure) for 10 s were achieved, which were et al. (2011). The color of the red vegetables was closely related to
lower than those (14.0%, 60.2% and 61.7%, respectively) with the lycopene, which showed no significant changes after micro-
traditional heating at 90  C for 15 min. This is because the micro- wave heating.
wave exposure time (7 s for aronia, 10 s for strawberry pure e) was
far less than thermal processing time (1e5 h for aronia, 15 min for
strawberry pure e) (Marszałek et al., 2015; Piasek et al., 2011). For 5. Conclusions and future trends
bioactive substances of foods, microwave sterilization normally
shows no obvious changes owing to the short exposure time. In Compared to conventional drying, microwave drying shows
addition, Lu et al. (2011) found that the losses of ascorbic acid lower energy consumption with products having better sensory
content and lycopene content of grape tomato after microwave attributes. However more porous structure occurs in foods. As for
heating were less than 6.83% and 13.52%, respectively. Therefore, microwave heating, with increasing in microwave power, hot air-
microwave sterilization has no significant effects on bioactive microwave heating can effectively reduce the final water content
substances and antioxidant activity of foods. and the recovery rate, but accordingly increase the shrinkage,
For the enzyme activity of the food products, microwave ster- dehydration rate and rehydration rate of the samples. Microwave
ilization can cause inactivation. Umudee, Chongcheawchamnan, cooking has the ability to maintain high antioxidant activity, retain
Kiatweerasakul, and Tongurai (2013) observed the interruption of high contents of bioactive components for vegetables, and improve
enzymatic lipolysis reaction in oil palm fruits by microwave ster- the in-vitro protein digestibility of food products by significantly
ilization. Chen et al. (2016) noticed that the activity of wheat germ reducing anti-nutritional factors, however significant losses in
lipase decreased by 60% and 100% after microwave radiation when nutrients could happen if cooking with massive water. Microwave
the temperatures were up to 45 and 60  C, respectively. Marszałek sterilization can be effectively used to ensure microbiological safety
et al. (2015) found that the activity of polyphenol oxidase and of food products. It exhibits no obvious changes in antioxidant
peroxidase on strawberry pure e decreased by 98% and 100%, activity, color and bioactive components owing to the destruction
respectively, after microwave radiation at 120  C. The enzyme, of enzyme activity and a short exposure time.
mostly consisting of protein, is easily damaged by microwave Although microwave has been widely used in food processing, it
processing, microwave sterilization is beneficial to the maintenance is necessary to strengthen further investigations in certain areas.
of the quality of foods by effective decrease in enzyme activity. The non-uniformity of microwave field is a long-standing technical
For textural and color properties of food products, microwave barrier to achieving uniform processing of foods, which can
sterilization normally shows minor effects. Table 5 summarizes the generally lead to hot or cold spots in foods. Research should be

Table 5
Color and texture of foods before and after the proposed microwave sterilizing.

Material Sterilization method Texture Color Reference

L a b

Grape tomatoes Microwave heating for 0 s 2.82 ± 0.23a N/mm 27.90 ± 0.98a 12.50 ± 0.96a 11.17 ± 0.84a Lu et al. (2011)
Microwave heating for 50 s at medium power 2.43 ± 0.43 bN/mm 26.73 ± 0.40a 12.10 ± 0.69a 10.60 ± 1.56a
Microwave heating for 50 s at high power Not detected 26.77 ± 1.16a 11.93 ± 0.35a 11.23 ± 0.35a
~ o peppers
Jalapen Before treatment Firmness 10.93 ± 1.33 N 30.48 ± 0.65 8.51 ± 0.57 8.28 ± 0.51 De La Vega-Miranda
Water-assisted microwave heating at 950 W to Firmness 9.29 ± 1.92 N 24.35 ± 0.64 5.67 ± 0.47 5.75 ± 0.60 et al. (2012)
reach 63  C for 25 s
Coriander foliage Before treatment Firmness 6.17 ± 1.58 N 25.98 ± 0.19 5.66 ± 0.18 7.18 ± 0.19 De La Vega-Miranda
Water-assisted microwave heating at 950 W to Firmness 8.21 ± 1.58 N 19.61 ± 0.06 5.99 ± 0.09 5.68 ± 0.09 et al. (2012)
reach 63  C for 10 s

Data with different letters (a, b) are significantly different (p < 0.05).
 Q. Guo et al. / Trends in Food Science & Technology 67 (2017) 236e247 245

 Figiel, A., Wojdyło, A., Szarycz, M., & Carbonell-Barrachina, A.

nchez, A.,  A.
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The authors are grateful to the International S&T Cooperation Choi, Y. S., Hwang, K. E., Jeong, T. J., Kim, Y. B., Jeon, K. H., Kim, E. M., et al. (2016).
Comparative study on the effects of boiling, steaming, grilling, microwaving and
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