Estimation of characteristic damage time of food materials in pulsed-electric fields Original Research Article

A method based on the electrical conductivity measurements is proposed to estimate the characteristic damage time (τ) of a food material in pulsed-electric fields (PEF). Empirical dependencies of τ versus electric field intensity E are obtained for apple, carrot and potato tissues. The generalized electroporation theory accounting for the sphericity of biological cells and distribution of their geometric sizes gives a credible description of the experimentally observed dependencies τ(E). An optimal electric field intensity Eopt that corresponds to minimum of power consumption at maximum of material disintegration is estimated theoretically and experimentally. For investigated tissue materials, the experimentally estimated value of Eopt is approximately 400 V cm−1. The energy consumption during the PEF treatment at Eopt≈400 V cm−1 decreases in the next order: apple → carrot → potato.