Challenges and Limitations for the Decontamination of High Solids Protein Solutions at Neutral pH using Pulsed Electric Fields

Publication date: Available online 24 September 2019Source: Journal of Food EngineeringAuthor(s): Felix Schottroff, Katja Johnson, Nicholas B. Johnson, Matthieu F. Bédard, Henry JaegerAbstractPulsed electric fields (PEF) can be used to pasteurize aqueous liquid foods at reduced temperatures to provide increased product quality, depending on the individual product to be treated. Thus, the continuous decontamination of high solids (10-25 % dm) protein solutions by PEF at neutral pH was investigated in detail in this study, evaluating different processing strategies.Resultsindicate that, independent of the individual matrix used (10, 18, 25 % whey protein; 10 % skim milk concentrate, skim milk), inactivation levels obtained using a co-linear treatment chamber were in the same range and seemingly only based on heat-induced mechanisms. The use of further alternative treatment chamber configurations did also not positively influence the effectiveness of continuous PEF pasteurization. This confirms the protective effect of proteins considering inactivation of microorganisms by PEF and the decreased efficiency of the treatment for foods at neutral pH levels.

Source: Journal of Food Engineering - September 24, 2019 Category: Food Science Source Type: research