New Heraeus Infra-Red Emitter Can Cook And Brown Without Fat.
12 Jul 2006
A versatile, hybrid carbon infra-red emitter has been developed by Hereaeus Noblelight to provide efficient and effective, simultaneous cooking and surface browning of food products. It offers significant benefits in terms of greater cleanliness, improved product quality and increased production output when compared with conventional cooking techniques. Although primarily targeted at the meat sector, the new emitter will find application throughout the food processing industry from ready cooked meals to baking and confectionary production.
The new emitter combines a Carbon medium wave emitter with a short wave emitter in a quartz glass tube, a unique combination which allows the use of infra-red for applications where heat is required both at the surface and within the volume of the product to be dried.
A typical application is in the cooking of meat products where it is required that the outer surface is attractively browned while the inside of the meat is thoroughly cooked. Conventionally, this is achieved by frying the meat in oil or fat and then possibly using long wave infra-red for surface browning. With the new emitter, it is now possible to brown the meat surface while cooking the volume of the joint, so avoiding unnecessary fats in the end product and improving quality.
Another significant benefit of the new hybrid emitter is its versatility, as, because of its precise controllability, the same emitter can be used to cook different products. The carbon and the short wave emitters can each be controlled separately to achieve a virtually infinite range of temperature profiles within an oven, while their fast response ensures immediate and effective switch on and off when required.
Infra-red is already a proven technology within the food processing sector and medium wave has been used successfully for processes such as chocolate tempering and browning of ready meals. This is because medium wave radiation is efficiently absorbed by water at an atomic level and is rapidly converted into the heat necessary, first to evaporate off water near the surface and then to brown the dry surface, if required. On the other hand, short wave radiation is much more penetrative and will create heat within the volume of an object, rather than at the surface. As a result, meat can be cooked thoroughly without drying out.
By combining a medium wave and a short wave emitter within one twin tube unit, it is now possible to realise the potential of both types of radiation to significant benefit. Further, the use of carbon infra-red emitters allows an especially integral unit, as the response times and radiation densities of these emitters match those of short wave emitters. Typically, power densities can be up to 150kW/m², with response times in seconds. This not only ensures that sufficient cooking power is available but also means heat is applied for only as long as necessary, ensuring high energy efficiency.
Heraeus Noblelight Ltd, part of the multi-national Heraeus Group, specialises in the production and application of high quality energy sources covering the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from ultra-violet to infra-red. It has over 40 years experience in infra-red technology and offers the expertise, products and systems to provide efficient and effective solutions to drying, heating and curing problems throughout industry. If required, it can carry out proving trials with customers’ own materials at its Neston Applications Centre and can advise on the selection of the optimum emitter to suit particular processes.
For further information:
Ian Bartley
Heraeus Noblelight Ltd
Unit 1,
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