In the numerical simulation of experimental cases, for thawing experiments (experiments 1 and 2) the initial temperature of the model food system and the menu box was set at − 18 °C. For the freezing experiment (experiment 3) the initial temperature of individual food items was set at 10 °C. External temperature conditions were monitored during experiments and were imposed as boundary conditions in the numerical simulation. For experiments 1, 2, and 3, the external temperature conditions were set as 24 °C, 22 °C, and − 18 °C, respectively.