Contact members for packaged articles heated with radio frequency energy

A process for sterilizing or pasteurizing articles using radio frequency (RF) energy, said process comprising:

• (a) transporting a plurality of articles through an RF heating zone using an RF zone conveyor system, wherein at least a portion of said articles comprise an ingestible substance in a sealed package;
• and
• (b) simultaneously with said transporting, heating said articles with RF energy in said RF heating zone,
• wherein said RF zone conveyor system comprises a plurality of article contact members for contacting and at least partially surrounding and supporting said articles in said RF heating zone during at least a portion of said transporting of step (a),
• wherein each of said article contact members comprises an energy absorptive component least partially surrounded by an insulating component, wherein said insulating component is positioned between said energy absorptive component and one of said articles during at least a portion of said transporting of step (a) and wherein at least a portion of said insulating component is in contact with at least a portion of said one of said articles during the heating of step (b),
• wherein said energy absorptive component has a dielectric constant in the range of 20 to 150 and a dielectric loss factor in the range of 10 to 1500 and wherein said insulating component has a dielectric constant of less than 10 and a dielectric loss factor of less than 10, and
• wherein the dielectric constant of said energy absorptive component is within 50 percent of the average dielectric constant of said ingestible substance and wherein the dielectric loss factor of said energy absorptive component is within 50 percent of the average dielectric loss factor of said ingestible substance.