Nonlinear trajectory control of high pressure thawing

This paper deals with the control of the thawing front propagation in a foodstuff. Recently, many results were obtained about the large influence of the pressure on the thawing time. However, such a technology is used without any control of the thawing kinetics, which seems to affect the quality of the foodstuff. With a view to improving it and to choosing the thawing time, the melting front propagation rate has to be mastered. To achieve this objective, we propose here to use a nonlinear control methodology. This methodology is carried out on water thawing. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.. All rights reserved.