**9. Advantages of microwave blanching**

Microwave heating involves conversion of electromagnetic energy into heat by selective absorption and dissipation. Microwave heating is attractive for heating of foods due to its origin within the material, fast temperature rise, controllable heat deposition, and easy clean-up. The very high frequencies used in microwave heating allow for rapid energy transfers and, thus, high rates of heating. These rates are a main advantage of this technique. Also, because microwaves penetrate the sample, heating is accomplished in the interior of the food. When heating rapidly, the quality of fruits and vegetables such as flavor, texture, color and vitamin content is better kept (Dorantes-Alvarez et al., 2000). However, rapid heating can also lead to problems of non-uniform heating when excessively high energy transfer rates are used (Ohlsson, 2000). It has been observed that microwave processing of chicken, beef, bacon, trout, and peanut oil does not change the fatty acid composition of these products, nor produces trans- isomers (Helmar et al., 2007).
