Thermal profiling is the term used to describe the process of recording and interpreting the temperatures of products and air as they move through a heat treatment process.
In the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries, it is essential to know the temperature at which a process is being run. This is critical to ensure that product quality is maintained to the standards required by consumers.
Not all processes are equal. Each process has its own challenges in terms of space, duration and environment (steam and submersion in water or oil).
The risk to public health places the processing industry firmly under the public spotlight.
Therefore, the effects of getting cooking or freezing processes wrong can be disastrous for a business, as well as its customers.
The Datapaq range of Thermal Profiling units and Thermal Barriers allow temperature logging equipment to pass through the treatment ovens connected directly to the process. This type of system is unique as it maintains the operability of sophisticated recording and storage electronics at temperatures in excess of 1000°C.
The units also come with a sophisticated software package that allows users to set parameters like actual ramp and soak times required to meet the desired specifications, and on completion, print out actual versus desired values to showing any deviations from the required profile, along with the durations.
There are many different packages available for different applications, but as an example the Food Tracker System, comprises of Insight software, a data logger and a selection of protective thermal barriers and thermocouples. It offers an accurate and reliable means of measuring product and environmental temperatures, an essential requirement for HACCP data analysis and process validation.
All systems offer enhancements such as humidity measurement, food tray and thermocouple jig, as well as the TM21 Radio Telemetry System for real-time temperature monitoring.
Another use of the Datapaq system is to use the information to optimise process temperatures. The most frequent food processing applications in the profiling systems include: food processing, baking, pasteurisation and sterilisation.