Pulsed Electric Field Processing

摘要

One of the more novel processes discussed at a recent workshop of IFT's Nonthermal Processing Division was pulsed electric field (PEF) processing. The workshop was held on September 14-16, 2005, atthe Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Wyndmoor, Pa. The PEF process and its status were described in detail by Howard Zhang (phone 215-233-6582), Research Leader at ERRC. Previously on the Food Science faculty at Ohio State University (OSU) and now Adjunct Professor there, Zhang said that PEF imposes a strong electric field on a flowing fluid for a very short time. Above a critical field strength of about 15,000 V/cm, vegetative cells are killed. In practice, higherfield strengths are used, up to about 35,000 V/cm for disinfection (destruction of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes). Lower-strength fields are used for static PEF (not discussed here).