Ohmic heating: A futuristic method for cooking bulgur

Bulgur is a nutritious, healthy, and partially cooked food product with long shelf life and produced from wheat grains. In the present study, ohmic heating (OH) was used to cook bulgur as an alternative method to conventional cooking in case of bulgur pilaf due to its advantages including shorter heating time, uniform heat distribution in food, and higher energy efficiency. Bulgur was cooked in 0.1% salt solution to evaluate the effect of OH at various voltage gradients (10, 13, 16, and 19 V/cm) and conventional cooking processes on the textural properties of bulgur and energy consumption. The results showed that for the OH process, the total energy consumption for the cooking of bulgur reduced by approximately 80% compared to that for conventional cooking. In addition, the voltage gradients were significantly related to the cooking time, a crucial parameter for the water absorption of bulgur (p < 0.05). Novelty Impact Statement: Pre-cooked bulgur must be cooked in water by using electric or flame equipment before consumption. Nevertheless, in these systems, the cooking process consumes a pretty long time and causes a vast amount of waste energy. Therefore, alternative methods are needed to save time and energy. Thus, the ohmic heating was used as an alternative cooking process for bulgur prior to consumption.