Abstract
In this study, the microwave free-space transmission technique was used to measure the dielectric property of powdered food at microwave frequencies. The sample holder was designed and fabricated to transmit the microwave signals ranging from 1 to 15GHz. From the microwave propagation theory the equation expressing the dielectric property of powdered food was derived and validated by standard dielectrics. The dielectric property of powdered food such as wheat flour, coffee powder and milk powder was measured and analyzed. In the uniform range of bulk density of material, the real parts of permittivity of the food samples increased with the increase of moisture content, bulk density and temperature of the samples. The propagation properties such as attenuation and phase shift increased linearly as the moisture density of the food samples increased. As a measuring frequency of the moisture content, the X-band was recommended.