Electron Beam Technology and Other Irradiation Technology Applications in the Food Industry.

Food irradiation is over 100 years old, with the original patent for X-ray treatment of foods being issued in early 1905, 20 years after there discovery by W. C. Roentgen in 1885. Since then, food irradiation technology has become one of the most extensively studied food processing technologies in the history of mankind. Unfortunately, it is the one of the most misunderstood technologies with the result that there are rampant misunderstandings of the core technology, the ideal applications, and how to use it effectively to derive the maximum benefits. There are a number of books, book chapters, and review articles that provide overviews of this technology [25, 32, 36, 39]. Over the last decade or so, the technology has come into greater focus because many of the other pathogen intervention technologies have been unable to provide sustainable solutions on how to address pathogen contamination in foods. The uniqueness of food irradiation is that this technology is a non-thermal food processing technology, which unto itself is a clear high-value differentiator from other competing technologies.

Effect of non-thermal hurdles in extending shelf life of cut apples.

Pulsed electric fields (PEF), high pressure processing (HPP) and conventional method of heating (90 °C, 60s) were evaluated as blanching methods for fresh cut apples. The settings employed for PEF and HPP were 1.5 kV/cm, 100 pulses, 4 Hz and 600 MPa for 2 min respectively. The blanched samples were soaked in sucrose solution (60°Brix, 60 min) containing ascorbic acid, citric acid, sodium benzoate, and potassium sorbate. The treated samples were packed and pasteurized using either hot water (90 °C, 15 min) or HPP (600 MPa, 10 min). These samples were analyzed for physicochemical and microbiological attributes immediately after treatment and after 2 months of cold storage. The combination of different hurdles in all groups completely inhibited microbial growth. However, in terms of color values and texture retention, the apple cuts treated with PEF followed by hot water pasteurization were of a better quality when compared to HPP pasteurized ones (P < 0.05).

Effect of different physicochemical de-tartration methods on red grape juice quality.

Grape contains a great deal of tartaric acid and minerals such as Potassium and Calcium which during ripening of grape increase in concentrations and result in potassium and calcium tartrate precipitation in grape juice. There have been different methods introduced for de-tartration but none of them have been completely successful. These methods can be categorized into two different groups of physicochemical and instrumental methods. In this study application of cold treatment, cream of tartar (Potassium bitartrate), Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC), and Mannoprotein were investigated. Then all these samples were stored at 5 °C to stimulate tartrate crystals precipitation and were investigated for color indices change, the amount of sediments, acidity, pH and taste. Among these methods addition of Mannoprotein and CMC were proved to have ability in stabilizing tartrate crystals in red grape juice.