Pulsed electric fields as an alternative to thermal processing for preservation of nutritive and physicochemical properties of beverages: A review

Abstract

Fruit juices and other beverages constitute an important source of bioactive compounds, but thermal processing may reduce their contents thus decreasing natural nutritive value of foods. This has been recently led to the use of non‐thermal technologies, especially pulsed electric fields (PEF) as an interesting alternative to thermal pasteurization of beverages. Reported results show that PEF is a useful for pasteurization of fruit juices that can minimize changes in physicochemical and nutritional properties with retention of higher amounts of health‐related phytochemicals. This study presents an overview of the effect of PEF on the physicochemical (e.g., Brix, pH, viscosity, acidity, color, aroma, and flavor, etc.) and nutritional (e.g., fatty acids and free amino acids, bioactive compounds, antioxidant capacity, etc.) properties of beverages. Practical applications Pulsed electric fields is suitable technological option for pasteurization, able to preserve valued bioactive compounds in beverages. Over the last decade, PEF has attracted a significant interest from various food industries and found numerous applications. However, chemical profile of food matrices has great influence on PEF, hence success of the treatment has to be evaluated and reported for each particular food. Accordingly, this review made systematic overview of the effects of PEF processing on the physicochemistry and nutrition with focus on beverages manufactured from various raw materials. Provided data can be applied for steering future uses of the PEF in processing, as well as directions of the future research with this useful technology.

Effect of Innovative Food Processing Technologies on the Physicochemical and Nutritional Properties and Quality of Non-Dairy Plant-Based Beverages

“…Regarding the impact of such technology on plant-based beverages, Cortés et al [42] investigated the effect of PEF processing on the quality attributes of "horchata" (tiger nut milk), a typical plant-based beverage from Spain [47]. The study evaluated the impact of treatment time (100-475 microseconds) and electric field intensity (20-35 kV/cm) during 5 days at 5 • C, while the temperatures during the treatment did not exceed 35 • C. According to the authors, the pH decrease during storage was ameliorated by PEF treatment that was even more influenced by treatment time.…”

Innovative processing techniques for altering the physicochemical properties of wholegrain brown rice (Oryza sativa L.) – opportunities for enhancing food quality and health attributes

“…Qian et al (2014) have examined the contribution of different PEF parameters to lipase inactivation in WBR samples, finding that the inhibitory effect was positively related to the frequency (200-1000 Hz), pulse width (3-15 μs), residence time (1-9 s), and voltage (3-15 V), while it was negatively influenced by the material thickness (5-25 mm). Moreover, voltage was found to be the main factor influencing microbial inactivation followed by pulse width and frequency (Gabrić et al, 2018).…”

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

“…Recently, the application of PEF in inactivating microorganisms has been extensively investigated and demonstrated Niu et al, 2019). Through applying highintensity electric pulses (1-80 kV cm À1 ) in several microseconds, the membrane constituents of cell would be changed and modified, including phospholipid bilayers and proteins (Gabri c et al, 2017). According to the theory of dielectric breakdown, the cell membrane permeability tends to be evidently enhanced, similar to that of electroporation when the field strength reaches 15-35 kV cm À1 and specific energies achieves 50-700 kJ kg À1 (Pu ertolas et al, 2010).…”

“…According to the theory of dielectric breakdown, the cell membrane permeability tends to be evidently enhanced, similar to that of electroporation when the field strength reaches 15-35 kV cm À1 and specific energies achieves 50-700 kJ kg À1 (Pu ertolas et al, 2010). With the development of processing and utilisation in bioactive products, PEF pretreatment within 0.7-3.0 kV cm À1 and 1.0-20 kJ kg À1 has attracted wide attention in the food mass transfer field (Gabri c et al, 2017). It has been reported that extraction of intracellular substances, such as juice yield, sugar, phenolics and astaxanthin (Loginova et al, 2012;Moussa-Ayoub et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2016;Zhi-Wei et al, 2018), tends to be strengthened by PEF, thus providing a good method to improve the food quality without significantly changing the temperature.…”