Australian military ration packs contain a variety of processed foods, including some that are fortified with vitamins. In this study, freeze-dried meals, a key component of lightweight patrol ration packs, were fortified at the time of packing by direct addition of a vitamin premix containing vitamins B₁, B₂, B₆ and E. Fortification was at three levels: 50%, 100% and 200% of the recommended vitamin content for military ration packs. Vitamin stability was determined following storage at temperatures of 1 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C for up to 24 months. HPLC methods were used to measure vitamin content; water activity and colour were also determined. Mean 24-month retention rates across all temperatures and fortification levels were 94%, 97%, 86% and 77% for vitamins B₁, B₂, B₆ and E, respectively. Water activity increased with storage temperature, whereas colour changes due to fortification and storage temperature were at the threshold of visual detection. Fortification of freeze-dried meals would be an effective means of improving the quality of light weight military ration packs by addressing shortfalls in vitamin levels.

Microwave assisted thermal sterilization (MATS) is a novel microwave technology currently used in the commercial production of ready-to-eat meals. It combines surface heating of high-temperature circulation water with internal microwave heating in cavities. The heating pattern inside the food packages in a MATS process depends heavily on the electric field distribution formed by microwaves from the top and bottom windows of the microwave heating cavities. The purpose of this research was to study the effect of the electric field on 922 MHz microwave heating of ready-to-eat meals as they moved through the microwave chamber of a pilot-scale MATS system using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. A three-dimensional numerical simulation model was developed as a digital twin of the MATS process of food moving through the microwave chamber. The simulation showed that the electric field intensity of the MATS microwave cavity was greatest on the surface and side edge of the cavity and of the food. There was a strong similarity of the experimental heating pattern with that of the electric field distribution simulated by a computer model. The digital twin modeling approach can be used to design options for improving the heating uniformity and throughput of ready-to-eat meals in MATS industrial systems.