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Comparisons of Physicochemical Properties of Watermelon Juice Treated with Pulsed Electric Fields and Thermal Pasteurization

Pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment is a non-thermal and alternative pasteurization treatment for fruit juices. PEF applies short pulses of electricity to a liquid food sample which inactivates microorganisms and enzymes. Thermal pasteurization is commonly used to pasteurize juice in the fruit juice industry but the process tends to deteriorate color, nutrients, and overall juice appearance. The overall goal of this study was to determine the effects of PEF treatment (30 kv/cm for 57 ìs in bipolar 2 ìs pulses at 22°C) on color, lycopene content, vitamin C content, pH, °Brix, and microbial count when compared with the effects of thermal pasteurization (TP). Fresh watermelon juice was PEF-treated at the following flow rates (mL/min), 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, and 160, while the TP-treated juice was thermally pasteurized with the following conditions: 75°C at 15, 30, and 45 s; 80°C at 15, 30, and 45 s; 85°C at 15, 30, 45 s; 90°C at 15, 30, and 45 s. Vitamin C degradation was modeled and estimated for TP watermelon juice samples using Power Law and Arrhenius models. A fresh, untreated watermelon juice sample was used as the control for the TP treatments. Watermelon juice was passed through the PEF system without pulse application and used as a PEF-control. Triplicate experiments were conducted. For PEF treatments, lycopene content was significantly higher at the slowest flow rate of 60 mL/min. Vitamin C of watermelon juice was not significantly affected during PEF treatment regardless of the flow rate, while it significantly decreased (P < 0.05) with intensity of TP treatments. The reaction rate constant (K) of watermelon juice for TP treatment at 75°C was significantly less than juice sample treated at 80, 85, and 90oC, which indicated that the Power law model worked well at higher temperature TP treatments. This model was more appropriate for predicting vitamin C concentration of watermelon juice during thermal pasteurization. The calculated activated energy for the vitamin C degradation for TP
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treatments was 5.54 (kJ/mol), which was lower than the reported values for other juices. TP-treated juice had higher b*values than PEF-treated juice which indicated TP juice was more yellow in color. PEF treatments did not affect the pH of the juice compared to TP treatments which increased pH. PEF-control and PEF-treated samples had similar °Brix values. TP treatments significantly affected °Brix values of watermelon juice. These results indicate that PEF treatment is a better option for pasteurizing watermelon juice over TP in terms of lycopene, vitamin C content and color.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11092009-102004
Date10 November 2009
CreatorsCook, Lauren Nicole
ContributorsKing, J, Wilson, P, Aryana, K, Sathivel, S
PublisherLSU
Source SetsLouisiana State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11092009-102004/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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