Natural Convection Drying at Low Temperatures of Previously Frozen Salted Meat

Abstract

The drying of raw cured ham proceeds under natural convection. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of external resistance on the drying of frozen and salted Biceps femoris and Semimembranosus. Natural convection drying kinetics were obtained at 5, 10, 15, and 20°C. The D_e values obtained neglecting external resistance were underestimated. Activation energy, E_a, agreed with literature results. The use of a D_e value from literature and a calculated E_a allowed us to calculate D_e for the temperatures used in this study. The mass transfer coefficient (k) was estimated from a model taking external resistance and the calculated D_e into account. The k values agreed with the ones in literature; thus, under natural convection conditions, external mass transfer resistance must be considered.

Keywords:

• Drying
• External resistance
• Meat
• Modeling
• Natural convection

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the CICYT, AGL2001-0932-C03-03.