Heat transfer simulation and retort program adjustment for thermal processing of wheat based Haleem in semi-rigid aluminum containers.

A mixed computational strategy was used to simulate and optimize the thermal processing of Haleem, an ancient eastern food, in semi-rigid aluminum containers. Average temperature values of the experiments showed no significant difference (α = 0.05) in contrast to the predicted temperatures at the same positions. According to the model, the slowest heating zone was located in geometrical center of the container. The container geometrical center F0 was estimated to be 23.8 min. A 19 min processing time interval decrease in holding time of the treatment was estimated to optimize the heating operation since the preferred F0 of some starch or meat based fluid foods is about 4.8-7.5 min.