Pulsed Electric Fields for Food Processing Technology

Every wonder why?
How do you know that the fruit juices you drink come from the real fruits and retain its true nutritional benefits?
Conventional food processing technologies often make use of thermal methods. This means that high temperatures are applied to the raw materials to process them into food products. Unfortunately, this negatively impacts the freshness, texture and nutritional value of foods.
More and more consumers want fresh and healthy food that looks and tastes as though it came straight from the farm. There is an innovative technology to process food. It’s called ‘Pulsed Electric Field’ also known as PEF-technology!
With PEF Processing, short electric pulses are applied to foods. These pulses create pores in plant cells, making the content accessible for the next processing step. For example, processes such as maceration of grape skins during red winemaking and maceration of crushed olives in olive oil production require less time and effort when pre-processed with PEF.
PEF makes it more efficient to extract fruit juices with higher purity compared to conventional processing methods. PEF Extracted juices and oils contain less water and a higher amount of pigments and antioxidants. The shelf life of products is extended by inactivating microbes at low temperatures using PEF technology. This increases flexibility and planning storing and distribution.

So the next time you drink your fruit juices, you have an idea of how it may have been processed.

Credit to the following sources:
European Federation of Food Science and Technology
   • FieldFOOD Project - Advantages of usi...  
   • New application of Pulsed Electric Fi...