Thawing of frozen food products in a staggered through-field electrode radio frequency system: A case study for frozen chicken breast meat with effects on drip loss and texture

Radio frequency (RF) processing has been widely used for thawing – tempering purposes, and electric field distribution due to electrode design of the RF systems has significant effects on temperature increase and temperature uniformity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the electric field distribution in a staggered through-field electrode RF system and thawing temperature uniformity with changes in quality parameters during RF thawing of frozen food products. For this purpose, frozen chicken breast samples were used. Electric field distribution in the staggered through-field electrode system (10 kW – 27.12 MHz) was determined as a function of electrode gap and applied power level. Higher electric field intensity was observed at center and middle edges of the bottom electrode of the system. Hence, thawing studies were carried out placing the frozen products at the center. Upon completion of thawing, texture changes and drip losses were determined and compared with conventional thawing at 4 °C refrigeration conditions. Complete RF thawing to −0.73 ± 0.79 °C using 65 mm electrode gap took 40 min compared to 18 h of conventional thawing with significantly reduced drip losses (0.32 compared to 4.84%).