Measurement of Thermal Conductivity of Foods in Liquid and Solid Phase Using a Thermal Probe

An instrument using thermal probe method was designed to measure thermal conductivity of liquid and solid foods. Thermal conductivity probe was designed with diameter to length ratio of 100 and diameter of 0.51 mm to minimize axial flow effect on thermal conductivity measurement. Thermal conductivities of distilled/deionized water, glycerin, and beef frankfurter meat were measured at $20-80^{\circ}C$. Mean thermal conductivity values of water showed less than 2.0% difference from several reference values without using time correction factor or probe calibration constant. For glycerin, difference was less than 0.7% from reference values at $20-50^{\circ}C$. Mean values of thermal conductivity for beef frankfurter meat ranged from 0.389 to $0.350\;W/m{\cdot}K$ at $20-80^{\circ}C$.