University Study Cooks Up Profits

A team of UA researchers is using a computer to simulate the cooking of food in poultry processing plants. Led by Bradley P. Marks, an associate professor with the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, the team is studying how to improve the profitability of the cooking process without reducing quality by overcooking while maintaining compliance with current and future safety regulations.

Marks says up to 30 percent of the nation’s broiler poultry production ends up in further-processed products. He believes if the team is able to come up with a 1 percent improvement in processing yields, the product that is saved could translate into more than $250 million in additional profits for the industry.

The team’s mathematical model simultaneously predicts heat penetration and mass loss during convection cooking. Marks is running pilot tests in hopes of validating the team’s computer model by the end of the calendar year.

“We believe we can maximize the way a cooking system works, taking into account temperatures, duration of cooking, air velocity, steam and a number of other variables,” Marks says. “If so, we’ll hopefully increase profitability for the industry in general.”

Team project contributors include Michael Johnson, Yanbin Li and John Mercy.

Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, the Food Safety Consortium, Tyson Foods, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority and the UA Institute of Food Science and Engineering.