Contact members for packaged articles heated with radio frequency energy

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

• (a) loading a plurality of said articles onto a conveyance system in a loading zone, wherein said loading includes initiating contact between the packages of said articles and contact surfaces of article contact members of said conveyance system, wherein said contact surfaces have an initial contact surface temperature immediately before contacting the packages of said articles in said loading zone;
• (b) transporting said articles through an RF heating zone via said conveyance system while supporting said articles with said article contact members and maintaining the packages of said articles in contact with said contact surfaces, wherein each of said article contact members comprises an energy absorptive component having a dielectric constant in the range of 20 to 150 and a dielectric loss factor in the range of 10 to 1500;
• (c) simultaneously with said transporting, heating said articles and said contacting members using RF energy discharged into said RF heating zone, wherein said heating causes the temperature of the geometric center of said articles to increase by at least 20° C., wherein said heating causes the temperature of said contact surfaces of said article contact members to increase by at least 10° C. to a maximum contact surface temperature;
• (d) unloading said articles from said conveyance system in an unloading zone, wherein said unloading includes removing the packages of said articles from contact with said contact surfaces of said article contact members;
• (e) returning said article contact members from said unloading zone to said loading zone to repeat said loading of step (a) with additional articles;
• and
• (f) subsequent to said heating of step (c) and prior to repeating said loading of step (a), cooling the temperature of said contact surfaces of said article contact members to a temperature at least 10° C. below the maximum contact surface temperature.