Effect of protein content on the thermal effusivity of foods

Abstract

Abstract The availability of thermophysical properties of both foods and their constituents is of considerable importance to the industry. The thermal effusivity is one of the less explored thermophysical parameters. It governs the penetration of heat into materials and is defined as the square root of the product of thermal conductivity of the material, volume-specific heat capacity, and density. This paper describes the application of a relatively new inverse photopyroelectric method (IPPE) to determine thermal effusivity of dehydrated whey protein isolate and egg white powder versus protein content. In both cases the effusivity values decreased linearly with increasing protein content. One percent increase in protein content of whey protein isolate and egg white lead to 6.5 and 7.2 Ws1/2 m−2 K−1 decrease in effusivity values, respectively.