Abstract:Currently, food industrial processes mainly rely on traditional thermal treatment and chemical methods. These methods often have a negative impact on food quality and safety, and possess disadvantages such as high cost and environmental unfriendliness. The development of efficient and green food processing methods has become an urgent problem to be solved in the food industry. Pulsed electric field (PEF) technology is a physical method that uses electromagnetic pulses with high voltage amplitude for processing materials. As an emerging non-thermal processing technology, PEF technology has attracted extensive and profound discussions among scholars due to its unique advantages and the aim to apply it to the food industry. This article reviews the principle and application mechanism of PEF technology, including electroporation theory, electrohydrodynamics, plasma and electrochemical reactions and free radical activation hypotheses, and summarizes the applications of PEF in food industry. The review provides effective solutions for the food processing field, which is conducive to promoting the development and application of PEF technology in the field of food processing.
