Water transport in meat during reheating

Abstract A study of heat and water transport in meat during a heating process was conducted. The meat samples were heated from 10 to 10 °C in a conventional oven at 175 °C and local water content and temperatures were measured during the heating process. Using whole meat from bovine muscles, the mechanism behind water transport inside the sample during heating was investigated. The anisotropy of meat in terms of heat and water transport was also studied. The study yielded two main results: When heating commences, water moves towards the centre of the samples. At a centre temperature of ~ 70 °C, water transport stops and changes direction. A theory for transport phenomena has been developed and is described in this paper. The results also indicate that, as expected, both water transport and heat transport are faster parallel to the meat fibres than perpendicular to them.