The possibility of using microwave technology for food processing is hardly new. Some of the first applications were suggested soon after World War II had ended, during which the development of the magnetron continued and its subsequent use in radar occurred. World War II sailors soon found that the warmest place ‘aloft’ was close to the rotating radar scanner on board naval vessels (Freedman, 1985). Later, the idea of a ‘box’ around this thermal energy source was to follow. Twenty years passed before, in the mid-1960s, industrial microwave pasteurisation began to be used for bakery products. Microwave sterilisation studies also began at this time (1991) with independent work taking place simultaneously in Europe and the USA. Some of this early work has moved into continuing commercial production but not just for the food industry. Even today, the major uses of high-frequency energy are for different materials, all of which are in other (non-food) industries such as thermoplastics sealing, rubber vulcanisation, ceramic tile processing and so on.
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