surface analysis of ostrich meat plates during deep-fat frying using image analysis and fractal dimension

analysis of food surfaces is of interest because many processes depend on their complexity. food surfaces show several textural characteristics related to their nature, composition and processing. food surface images and their microscopic details need to be translated into numerical data before engineering analysis. fractal geometry is a novel concept to describe the complexity of natural shapes. in order to introduce a nondestructive method estimating the effect of process conditions on ostrich meat plates’ surface, in this research an image analysis technique was applied and the concept of fractal dimension was used to quantity the changes. results show that fractal dimensions of the surfaces decreased with frying. furthermore, with the increase in frying temperature, frying time and power of microwave pretreatment, a growing procedure in fractal dimension was observed. fractal dimension as a quantity index could describe the shrinkage of deep-fried ostrich meat as a physical property.