Preliminary Evaluation of a Novel Microwave-Assisted Induction Heating (MAIH) System on White Shrimp Cooking

The microwave-assisted induction heating (MAIH) system provides comprehensive heating by combining microwave heating (with 1300 W of power and 2450 MHz of frequency) in the top part and induction heating (with 1800 W of power) in the bottom part. In this study, fresh white shrimps were placed in a sealed crystallized polyethylene terephthalate (CPET) container and heated in the MAIH system at two temperatures (130 and 90 °C) from 60 to 120 s. Afterwards, the shrimp samples were rapidly cooled, and the changes in the shrimp quality, including the appearance, cook loss, aerobic plate count (APC), color values, and texture, during the heating process were analyzed. The results demonstrate that longer heating times decrease the APC levels, but increase the cook loss, color values (lightness, redness, and whiteness), and texture (hardness, cohesiveness and chewiness) of the white shrimp samples. In particular, the white shrimp is fully cooked and gains a completely red appearance, along with no APC detected after heating in the MAIH system at 130 °C for at least 80 s or at 90 °C for at least 100 s. In summary, to achieve a good appearance, no APC detected, and low cook loss, the following heating conditions are recommended for cooking white shrimp in the MAIH system: heating at 130 °C for 80 s or at 90 °C for 100 s. This novel MAIH technology allows food to be heated and sterilized after being packed, thereby eliminating the post-pollution issue. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the use of MAIH in the application of food processing.