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Effects of Pulsed Electric Field Processing on Quality Characteristics and Microbial Inactivation of Soymilk

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Abstract

Effects of pulsed electric fields (PEF) on quality characteristics and microbial inactivation of soymilk were studied with different PEF parameters. PEF did not affect significantly the values of pH, “a” (an indicator of redness ranging from “−a” to “+a”, −a = green, +a = red) and electric conductivity. The values of “L” (white if “L” = 100, black if “L” = 0) increased slightly, whereas values of viscosity and “b” (an indicator of yellowness ranging from “−b” to “+b”, −b = blue, +b = yellow) decreased slightly as PEF time increased from 0 to 547 μs. Cysteine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, and serine reduced with the increase of PEF time. The relative activities of soybean lipoxygenase (SLOX) decreased with PEF time increasing from 0 to 1,036 μs. When PEF time and strength increased, the inactivation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococus aureus increased significantly (p < 0.05), achieving a maximum of 5.20 and 3.51 log10 cycles reduction at PEF time 547 μs and pulsed electric strength 40 kV/cm, respectively. The inactivation of E. coli, S. aureus, and SLOX as a function PEF time followed Weibull distribution. This study demonstrated that PEF could inactivate efficiently E. coli, S. aureus, and SLOX without affecting the quality characteristics of soymilk. Thus, this technique could be an advantageous alternative to heat treatment for pasteurization of soymilk.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Development Planning of Shandong Province (2010GNC10917 and 2011GGH22110) and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2011CM039), Jinan, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Engineering and College of Food & Bioengineering, Shandong Polytechnic University, Jinan, 250353, China

    Ying-Qiu Li & Xiang-Zhong Zhao

  2. Information Department of Library, Shandong Polytechnic University, Jinan, 250353, China

    Wen-Li Tian

  3. School of Food Science, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, 453003, China

    Hai-Zhen Mo

  4. School of Food and Bioengineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Yin-Liang Zhang

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Li, YQ., Tian, WL., Mo, HZ. et al. Effects of Pulsed Electric Field Processing on Quality Characteristics and Microbial Inactivation of Soymilk. Food Bioprocess Technol 6, 1907–1916 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-012-0868-8

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