CFD modeling of thermal processing of particulate foods

During industrial thermal processing of liquid–particulate foods, it is essential to achieve the minimum process lethality (F0) required for destroying or inactivating the microorganisms of health or spoilage concern, particularly in the region of the cold spot (i.e. particle-centre in conduction-heated foods). Regarding thermal treatments, particulate foods represent the most difficult case in the design of sufficient time-temperature combination and often the solution is represented by an over heat treatment that normally causes qualitative detriment of the food both under sensorial and nutritional points of view. Similarly, many other processes in the food industry involving particulate foods are difficult to be designed and controlled. For this reason, CFD technique can overcome lots of experimental limits and hence it can be the solution in particulate foods process design. In this chapter several applications among thermal treatments both post-packaging and in continuous plants, dealing with particulate foods, are reported. In all cases, CFD technique allowed to obtain affordable and applicable models in the food process design, regardless dimension, shape and concentration of the particulates.