Effects of oven type and baking temperature on acrylamide concentration, surface browning, temperature
profiles and drying rates of muffins were investigated. Muffins were baked in convection and steam
assisted hybrid ovens at 145, 160 and 175 C for different baking times. For all oven types, the acrylamide
concentration of muffins increased with increasing baking ti me and temperature (p < 0.05). The forma-tion was considered as the first order reaction kinetics except for the lowest bakin g temperature at nat-ural convection and steam assisted hybrid ovens. The reaction rate constant, k was found to be in the
range of 0.027–0 .078 (min 1
). For the forced convection oven, the effect of baking temperature on acryl-amide concentration followed the Arrhenius type of equation; with activati on energy of 36.35 kJ/mol. The
minimum drying rate was observed by the steam assisted hybrid oven, at all conditions. Steam assisted
baking resulted in lower acrylamide concentration at all bakin g temperatures, while providing the aver-age moisture content not significantly different.