Thermal treatments of foods: a predictive general-purpose code for heat and mass transfer

Thermal treatments of foods required accurate processing protocols. In this context, mathematical modeling of heat and mass transfer can play an important role in the control and definition of the process parameters as well as to design processing systems. In this work a code able to simulate heat and mass transfer phenomena within solid bodies has been developed. The code has been written with the ability of describing different geometries and it can account for any kind of different initial/boundary conditions. Transport phenomena within multi-layer bodies can be described, and time/position dependent material parameters can be implemented. Finally, the code has been validated by comparison with a problem for which the analytical solution is known, and by comparison with a differential scanning calorimetry signal that described the heating treatment of a raw potato (Solanum tuberosum).