TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION FOR PRESERVING NUTRITIONAL VALUE AND INCREASING THE DIGESTIBILITY OF MEAT DISHES

Cooking perishable foods is an important and complicated process. Technological equipment plays a huge role in the cooking process, as well as the professional skills of the cook. To exclude the influence of the cook from this process, it is necessary to develop new heating equipment that would provide automatic culinary (heat) food processing without the participation of personnel, as well as intensify the process and reduce heat and energy consumption. This task is especially relevant when cooking in closed (restricted) spaces is concerned. The present research featured perspective directions of heat treatment. The authors compared the effect of microwave, ultrasonic, and infrared fields on the product and the technological process. The analysis proved that the grill mode provided the best option for heat treatment of portioned and small-sized semi-finished products from non-graded meat. Heat treatment of semi-finished products occurs without their contact with any heat transfer surface or coolant. The processing principle is based on the fact that free water contained in semi-finished products intensively absorbs IR radiation with a wave length of λ=1.0–1.2 μm, thus heating the inner layers of the food product. The radiation energy converted into heat energy is transferred to the inner layers of the product and reaches its core. Forced convection during the heat treatment in the ‘grill' mode intensifies the speed of heating and cooking. Unlike conductive heating, the surface of the product remains open, which lets the layers cool down. This makes it possible to deliver an intense heat flux to the product. The author developed a KG-1 galley grill that can process portionedmeat (80–120 g) and small-sized semi-finished products (30–40 g) in the grill mode. The internal walls are coated with a special stuff that reflects IR-radiation, while the external walls are covered with a heat-resistant andhighly efficient quartz aerogel, which is a flexible thermal insulation material. A set of prefabricated quartz heaters are located at a distance of 4.5–5 cm from the food product, which intensifies the cooking process. The proposed structural changes decreased the temperature of the outer walls from 220°C to 60°C; lowered electricity consumption by 24–26%; shortened the cooking time by 20–25%; reduced the discharge of smoke and steam into the sewage system; improved filtering and ventilation; reduced heat losses by 1.3–1.5; increased efficiency by 16–20%; expanded the functionality and assortment of high quality meat dishes.