Abstract
Several types of ovens have been widely used for food processing and cooking. In this process, foods in an oven are heated by combination of heat transfers such as convection, conduction and thermal radiation. The quality of food products are affected by these heating conditions. In food factories, temperature inside the oven and baking time are adjusted by empirical human operations based on measured temperatures only at fixed-point. Therefore, it can be effective to measure the thermal environment where the food actually placed/moved in the process in real time. We have developed an electronic circuit board and a measuring device having wireless data communication function to measure the thermal environment parameters of temperature, humidity, wind speed, radiation contribution rate, vibration of the food inside the oven. We have performed the practical experiment with a reel oven working at food industry over 175°C for 1800s. The results show that the thermal environment nearby the food in the oven can be measured and temperature profiles also can be traced.
