Reference Trajectory Tracking of Superficial Temperature in Food Decontamination

This paper proposes a preliminary study, for the tracking control of the superficial temperature in rapid decontamination of foods surface. The data are issued from a heat and mass transfer simulator, taking into account all the specificities of the process and of the product. This study, supported by a on-going European project, aims at imposing an increasing and decreasing ramp-type temperature profile to the surface of foods, to achieve a complete or partial destruction of microorganisms. A complete model including water activity, food desiccation and heat transfer is proposed to describe the phenomena induced by the process. A simplified model, based only on heat transfer, is finally proposed to design a tracking control of a superficial temperature reference profile. The robustness of the solution is discussed through different conditions of use.