In conventional defrosting, heat is transferred to the foodstuff surface via convection or conduction and then dissipates throughout the product. With RF heating it is different and the Radio Frequency field generates heat directly inside the entire product mass, this process is called “endogenous” or “volumetric” heating. The great thing about RF heating is that the heat generation is instantaneous and distributed evenly throughout the product. The result, a rapid, uniform and controlled defrost delivering outstanding results in terms of product quality, operational flexibility, and energy savings.
Now for the technical bit, the actual mechanism that generates the heat is called dielectric heating and is caused by the vibration and rotation of polar or polarised molecules such as water. The way it works is that the RF field (which is changing from positive to negative millions of times a second) causes all the polar molecules to align in one direction and then flip (rotate) when the polarity of the RF field changes. As they rotate, the polar molecules collide with other molecules and ions and generate heat.
