Development of Packaging and Products for Use in Microwave Ovens

Peter Pesheck is currently Principal at Food Biophysics, LLC. In his 34-year R&D career at Pillsbury and General Mills he worked primarily in cross-business Strategic Technology groups, where he specialized in structure-function relationships, microscopy, modeling, microwave heating (food dielectric properties, simulation, product design and problem resolution), and wheat flour doughs and their structural transformations in proofing and baking. He has published 4 papers in reviewed journals and holds 19 U.S. patents. Matthew Lorence is currently a Packaging Technology Manager at Bellisio Foods, Inc. He is a leader in the field of packaging R&D for consumer and industrial products, and medical devices. He was previously Packaging Technology Manager at General Mills. He holds 13 U.S. patents and has extensive experience in identifying, developing, and commercializing convenient Total Product Offerings leveraging Open Innovation for new packaging and product technologies.

Part 1 Principles: Electromagnetic basis of microwave heating; Influence of food geometry and dielectric properties on heating performance; Advanced topics in microwave heating uniformity; Microwave ovens; Measurements of dielectric properties of foods and associated materials; Microwave dielectric properties of foods and some other substances; Flavors and colors for microwave foods. Part 2 Microwave packaging materials and design: Rigid passive microwave packaging forms; Susceptors in microwave packaging; Shielding and field modification-thick metal films. Part 3 Product development, packaging and oven safety: Package and product development testing in a microwave oven; Regulatory issues in microwave packaging; Microwave oven safety. Part 4 Modeling of microwave heating: Modeling microwave heating in foods; Modeling the effects of active packaging of microwaved foods.