Non-destructive dielectric characterization method for food products

This paper presents a non-destructive dielectric characterization method for heterogeneous dielectric samples such as food products. The principle is based on the measurement of the reflection coefficient of a center-fed dipole antenna in a good contact with the sample surface. The sample's dielectric constant is directly related to the dipole resonance frequency. Dielectric constant measurements obtained with the dipole antenna are in good agreement with the ones obtained by electromagnetic simulation software (HFSS) and a commercially available coaxial-line probe.