Influence of Different Final Cooling Pressure on Vacuum Cooling Performances of Low-salt Bacon and Simulation Study

In this paper,the vacuum cooling process of the low-salt bacon as raw material was numerically simulated by using a coupled model between heat and mass transfer. The influence of the final cooling pressure on cooling rate and water loss was studied and the experimental and calculational results were compared and analyzed. The results showed that in the process of decreasing the Chinese traditional bacon center temperature from 80 ℃ to 20 ℃,the experimental results showed that the vacuum cooling process spent 28 min and the mass loss was 8.0% and calculational results showed that the vacuum cooling process spent 25 min and the mass loss was 8.5% when the final cooling pressure was 100 Pa. However,the experimental results showed that the vacuum cooling process spent 58 min and the mass loss was 7.0% and calculational results showed that the vacuum cooling process spent 57 min and the mass loss was 7.5% when the final cooling pressure was 2000 Pa. This suggested that the lower the final cooling pressure was,the less time the vacuum cooling process spent. On the other hand,the results of experiment and simulation were basically consistent,which verified the reliability of the computational model. Based on the simulation results of the influence of the final cooling pressure on cooling rate and mass loss,the relationship between the final cooling pressure and cooling time or mass loss was fitted. It was found that the final cooling pressure had exponential and linear relationship with cooling time and mass loss,respectively. This provided meaning reference value for the rapid cooling and storage of the Chinese bacon.