Review of the specific heat of food models

Abstract

This review proposes the mathematical models widely used by predicting the specific heat of food as a function of temperature. Specific heat is a measure of the energy required to change the temperature of food by one degree. Specific heat of food is essential to determine the heat load imposed on the designing food processes and processing equipment. Above freezing temperature the predicting mathematical model is called specific heat of food. Below freezing temperature the model is called apparent specific heat of food, because of the latent heat involved during phase change. The specific heats of food depend on their composition, structure and temperature. Three ways to obtain value data of specific heat of food such as published data (literature), direct measurement (experiment) and predictive equation (prediction). Predicting of the specific heat of food products was using mathematical models. Mathematical modeling is economical method to determine for predicting of the specific heat of food. Typically, these mathematical models are based on food compositions. The most widely used predicting models are Choi and Okos (1987) model and Schwartzberg (1976) model. These mathematical models are can be used by predicting of the specific heat of food as function of temperature. Other widely used predicting the mathematical models are Seibel (1892), Chen (1985) and Heldman (1975). Seibel (1892) and Heldman and Singh (1981) models do not show the effect of temperature.