Pulse Electric

Fields(PEF) for food

processing technology
Made by :- Praful S. Bhosale
Under the guidance of :- Prof. M. B. Mandake
Introduction

 Consumer requirements for foods are constantly changing. Today

consumers demand foods that are both fresh and natural. Therefore,
the steps used to process foods should be designed to preserve their
natural quality.
 Pulsed electric fields PEF is a non-thermal method of food
preservation that uses short pulses of electricity for microbial
inactivation and causes minimal detrimental effect on food quality
attributes.
 PEF technology aims to offer consumers high-quality foods.
How does PEF inactivate microorganisms?

PEF treatment has lethal effects on various vegetative bacteria, mold,

and yeast. Efficacy of spore inactivation by PEF in combination with heat
or other hurdles is a subject of current research. A series of short, high-
voltage pulses breaks the cell membranes of vegetative microorganisms
in liquid media by expanding existing pores (electroporation) or creating
new ones. Pore formation is reversible or irreversible depending on
factors such as the electric field intensity, the pulse duration, and
number of pulses
Setup showing PEF treatment of cod fish
between 2 parallel stainless steel electrodes
Comparison with existing Technologies

 Thermal processing is a major technology that has been commonly used

in the food industry to increase shelf life and maintain food safety with
low processing costs. Compared with thermal pasteurization, non-thermal
processing offers an advantage of low process temperature which results
in a better retention of flavors and nutrients.
 For food quality attributes, PEF technology is considered superior to
traditional thermal processing methods because it avoids or greatly
reduces detrimental changes in the sensory and physical properties of
foods.
 Thermal processing not only kills contaminating microorganisms but also
degrades the taste, color, flavor, and nutritional quality of foods. Cold-
pasteurization methods have been developed to kill microorganisms and
to maintain quality without the application of heat.
Applications of PEF

Each of the non-thermal technologies has specific applications in terms of

the types of foods that can be processed. Among these, pulsed electric fields
(PEF) is one of the most promising non-thermal processing methods for
inactivation of microorganisms, with the potential of being an alternative for
pasteurization of liquid foods. PEF treatment has made successful
breakthrough in the treatment of the following food substances:-
 Juice Processing.
 Meat and fish treatment.
 Wine Processing.
 Extraction of sugars and other cellular content from plant cells, such as
sugar beets.
 Skimmed milk.
 Freeze-dried apples.
Drawbacks

 Any bacterial spores or mould ascospores in food products are usually

resistant to PEF treatment, even at high intensity. This property could
lead to a failure of the pasteurization process, resulting in a potential
food safety hazard.
 The membranes of both plant and microbial cells are significantly
affected when exposed to PEF treatment, depending on the treatment
intensity. This could have lethal effect on the food products.
 More and more studies are indicating that most microorganisms have
some level of resistance to PEF treatment. Several aspects of the PEF
treatment process need to be further investigated if this technology is
become a widely used method equivalent to heat pasteurization.
Industrial processing of red and white grapes
assisted by Pulsed Electric Fields: A Case
Study
About 200 tons of different grape varieties of white and red grapes were
processed with PEF with the aim of:
1. Extracting the same quantity of juice from white grapes but with a
lower time and pressure on the presses.
2. Reducing the extraction time of polyphenols (i.e. phenolic content)
on red grapes during the maceration process.
3. Identifying the main problems with the implementation of the
technology in the industry and quantify the added value of the PEF
equipment.
Industrial equipments used

 The equipments were designed and assembled by Energy Pulse

Systems, Portugal.
 The equipments used for the PEF processing are a monopolar pulse
solid-state modulator and a PEF treatment chamber.
 Specifications of the Pulse modulator :- An industrial 10kV/ 3kW
solid-state pulse modulator, with 800x600x400 mm3 and 80 kg was
assembled.
 Specifications of the PEF treatment chamber:- The modulator is
connected to a co-field treating chamber, with 120 mm diameter and
two 80 mm width gaps, through a 3 m coaxial cable. The size of the
chamber was defined by the industrial standard tubes installed.
Experimental Procedure

 About 195 tons of grapes were processed with PEF, in the João
Portugal Ramos winery, from Alentejo region of Portugal.
 The grapes arrive in trucks and are dumped into pumps that take off
the stem, afterwards the grapes are crushed in presses and the grape
mash is injected into fermentation tanks.
 The experimental protocols used are presented in Table 1, where
different varieties of red and white grapes were subjected to PEF. The
third column shows, per grape variety, the quantity of grapes
subjected to PEF, where approximately the same amount was taken as
control sample. Considering Table 1, in average roughly 195 tons were
processed with a flux of 18.6 T/h at 21ºC, with 12 Pulses/kg.
Experimental Protocols
Conclusion

 The results show, with the tested protocol, that the PEF treatment accelerated the
process of maceration of the grapes, increasing plant capacity, which in turn can
reduce the costs involved with these processes.
 However, the results shown were not the same with all treated grape varieties. In
several cases there were no significant changes between the PEF and untreated mash
grapes, during first preliminary tests. The reasons why the results were not similar for
all treated grapes could be explained by differences in temperature of the grapes, mass
uniformity, flux, number of pulses and grape species. Some of these are not possible to
control in an industrial scale facility where millions of kilograms are processed.
 Preliminary results show that PEF can increase value on industrial scale, but the
difficulty in controlling several parameters, such as flux and temperature, important to
the electroporation of plant cells for mass transfer, lead to lack of regularity of the
achieved results.
References

 Kirthy Reddy M, Penchalaraju M Department of Food Technology, College of

food science and Technology, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agriculture University,
Bapatla, India Pulsed Electric Field Technology in Food Processing Industry-A
Review
 Industrial processing of red and white grapes assisted by Pulsed Electric
Fields, L. M. Redondo (Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Centro de
Física Nuclear da UL, Portugal), J. O. Santos, F. Barros & M. T. Pereira
(EnergyPulse Systems, Lda Lusoforma, SA, Portugal).
 Pulsed Electric Field Processing of Foods: A Review, S. JEYAMKONDAN, D. S.
JAYAS (Department of Biosystems Engineering, 438 Engineering Building,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 5V6 )AND R. A.
HOLLEY (Department of Food Science, 248 Ellis Building, University of
Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2).
 Irek Klonowski, Volker Heinz, Stefan Toepfl, Guðjón Gunnarsson,
Guðjón Þorkelsson APPLICATIONS OF PULSED ELECTRIC FIELD
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE FOOD INDUSTRY.
 A Review of Sublethal Effects of Pulsed Electric Field on Cells in Food
Processing Man-Sheng Wang, Lang-Hong Wang, Alaa El-Din A. Bekhit,
Jing Yang, Zhen-Ping Hou, Yan-Zhou Wang, Qiu-ZhongDai, Xin-An
Zeng.