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Determination of Pulsed Electric Fields Effects on the Structure of Potato Tubers

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Handbook of Electroporation

Abstract

Potato tubers are often considered by food processors as being “homogenous” plant structures. However, tubers are complex organs made up of many tissue types, including a complex vascular system, each with different functions and properties that can affect the influence of pulsed electric fields (PEF) on cell and tissue structures. Many research investigations evaluating the effects of PEF on the microstructure of potato tuber have used samples that have been mechanically fragmented prior to PEF treatment and unfortunately the internal structure of vascular system inside the tuber has been ignored during sample preparation, PEF treatment, and microstructure analysis. This chapter discusses different methodologies that have been used to assess the effect of PEF treatment on potato tubers, including electrical impedance and conductivity measurements, cell viability staining, enzymatic browning, and microscopic techniques such as light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and also magnetic resonance imaging. The limitations of each technique and how these techniques have been used in published studies are discussed. In addition, this chapter demonstrates how sample pretreatments such as peeling or cutting influence the assessment of PEF effect on the microstructure of the tuber and how several techniques should be used and combined in order to understand how the PEF effects are distributed throughout the whole potato tubers.

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank the Riddet Institute Center of Research Excellence Program for providing PhD scholarship to Tingting Liu. This research was carried out as part of the Food Industry Enabling Technologies Programme funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (contract MAUX1402).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Indrawati Oey, Farnaz Faridnia, Sze Ying Leong & Tingting Liu

  2. Riddet Institute, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Indrawati Oey & Tingting Liu

  3. Department of Botany, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Farnaz Faridnia, Sze Ying Leong, David J. Burritt & Tingting Liu

Authors
  1. Indrawati Oey
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  2. Farnaz Faridnia
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  3. Sze Ying Leong
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  4. David J. Burritt
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  5. Tingting Liu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Indrawati Oey , Farnaz Faridnia , Sze Ying Leong , David J. Burritt or Tingting Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical Enginer, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Damijan Miklavcic

Section Editor information

  1. Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, IPBS/CNRS UMR 5089, IPBS - CNRS UMR 5089, 205, route de Narbonne, BP 64182, 31077 Toulouse cedex 04, Toulouse, France

    Marie-Pierre Rols

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, 6124 Etcheverry Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    Boris Rubinsky

  3. Department of Animal Production and Food Science, Faculty of Veterinary, University of Zaragoza, Tecnología de los Alimentos, C/ Miguel Servet, 177, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain

    Javier Raso

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Oey, I., Faridnia, F., Leong, S.Y., Burritt, D.J., Liu, T. (2016). Determination of Pulsed Electric Fields Effects on the Structure of Potato Tubers. In: Miklavcic, D. (eds) Handbook of Electroporation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26779-1_151-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26779-1_151-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26779-1

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