Heat transfer characteristics of cooked meats using different cooling methods

Cooling rate and heat transfer characteristics of cooked meats using four different cooling systems of vacuum cooling, air blast cooling, water immersion cooling and slow air cooling were investigated. The experimental results show that only the vacuum cooling can achieve the requirement of cooling the cooked meats from about 74 to 10°C within 2.5 h. The vacuum cooling shows different heat transfer characteristics during the cooling process, as compared with other cooling methods. Vacuum cooling rate is controlled by the evaporation rate of water from the cooked meats, while the cooling rates of the other three cooling methods are governed by the thermal conductivity of the cooked meats. Therefore, it is impossible for air blast, water immersion and slow air cooling to obtain high cooling rates since these three methods are different only in the convective heat transfer from the surface of the cooked meat to the cooling medium.