Impact of pulsed electric field (PEF) pretreatment on process performance of industrial French fries production

Understanding the Frying Process of Plant-Based Foods Pretreated with Pulsed Electric Fields Using Frying Models

“…While it has been recognised that PEF treatment can induce the formation of irreversible pores in cell membranes causing leakage of cell contents (e.g., free sugars and amino acids), this electroporation effect on plant tissue may not necessary impact severely on the leakage of polymers such as starch. The retention of starch has been observed in PEF-treated potatoes subjected to industrial scale French fries production [ 12 ]. In fact, potato starch granules with an average diameter of 40 μm, which possibly became larger after PEF treatment [ 55 ], were not able to pass through the PEF-induced membrane pores that had a maximum size of around 5 μm [ 65 ].…”

“…Taking the production of French fries as an example, the process line consists of potato washing and sorting, skin peeling, preheating, cutting into fries, blanching, predrying, par frying and finally blast freezing. PEF is recommended to be applied as a pretreatment to the potatoes before the cutting step, potentially replacing the preheating step to reduce energy consumption while achieving equivalent process performance [11,12]. Under suitable operating parameters, PEF treatment will modify the structural and textural properties of potatoes, making them easier/more flexible to cut into fries, thereby reducing "feathering" and at the same time, extending the durability of the cutting blades [11,12].…”

“…PEF is recommended to be applied as a pretreatment to the potatoes before the cutting step, potentially replacing the preheating step to reduce energy consumption while achieving equivalent process performance [11,12]. Under suitable operating parameters, PEF treatment will modify the structural and textural properties of potatoes, making them easier/more flexible to cut into fries, thereby reducing "feathering" and at the same time, extending the durability of the cutting blades [11,12]. With respect to the quality of the fried potato products, a lower browning tendency and a crispier texture compared to their non PEF-treated counterparts has been reported in the literature [11][12][13][14].…”

“…Under suitable operating parameters, PEF treatment will modify the structural and textural properties of potatoes, making them easier/more flexible to cut into fries, thereby reducing "feathering" and at the same time, extending the durability of the cutting blades [11,12]. With respect to the quality of the fried potato products, a lower browning tendency and a crispier texture compared to their non PEF-treated counterparts has been reported in the literature [11][12][13][14]. Such advantages offered by PEF in terms of process performance and product improvement make it appealing for the potato industry to adopt this technology.…”

Effects of pulsed electric fields pretreatment on the quality of jujube wine

“…Pulsed electric fields (PEF), regarded as an emerging non-thermal treatment technology, has been used in inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms in food processing, which can also improve the colour, texture and flavour (Lee et al, 2017;Fauster et al, 2018;Tian et al, 2018) of food compared with other thermal processing approaches (Gonzalez-Casado et al, 2018). Besides, PEF techniques have been employed to modify the structures of the polymer compounds such as starch (Hong et al, 2016a(Hong et al, , 2016b and ovalbumin nanotube .…”