Design and assessment of an innovative thawing equipment for the professional food service

The need for faster, safer and environmentally compatible thawing methods is perceived in different branches of food industry, as e.g. in the fast food sector. We investigate a prototype of jet-impingement, batch-process thawing machine, exploiting high-speed impact of heated atmospheric air onto food items. The results of combined experimental and numerical study show the promising potential of this technology beyond the expected increased thawing rate, especially when the proposed two-side arrangement of the jets is adopted. A series of thawing indicators are calculated and used to account for the thawing uniformity and for the risk of bacterial proliferation. A computationally-efficient two-stage model of the considered thawing process is conceived, which can be used for design and optimization.