Effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) pre-treatment coupled with osmotic dehydration on physico-chemical characteristics of organic strawberries

• Published in: Journal of food engineering Vol. 213; pp. 2 - 9
• Main Authors: Tylewicz, Urszula, Tappi, Silvia, Mannozzi, Cinzia, Romani, Santina, Dellarosa, Nicolò, Laghi, Luca, Ragni, Luigi, Rocculi, Pietro, Dalla Rosa, Marco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Colour; Fruit quality; Non-thermal treatment; Organic; Strawberries; Texture; Strawberries; Non-thermal treatment; Texture; Organic; Fruit quality; Colour
• ISSN: 0260-8774; 1873-5770
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2017.04.028

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) pre-treatment on mass transfer phenomena, water distribution and some physico-chemical parameters of osmo-dehydrated organic strawberries. For PEF treatments 100 near-rectangular shaped pulses, with fixed pulse width of 100 μs and repetition time of 10 ms were used. Electric fields strength applied were 100, 200 and 400 V cm−1. Afterwards, samples were subjected to OD treatments carried out in two different hypertonic solutions (40% w/w), one with sucrose and the other one with trehalose. The results shown that PEF treatment positively affected the mass transfer during OD even at the lowest electric field strength applied (100 V/cm), partially preserving the cell viability and maintaining at the same time the fresh-like characteristics of strawberries. •Organic strawberries were used to obtain semi-dried osmodehydrated products.•PEF prior OD positively affected the mass transfer even at the lowest intensity.•At low PEF (100 V cm−1) cell viability was partially preserved.•Sucrose and trehalose solutions exerted a similar effects on the studied parameters.