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Pulsed Electric Fields Effects on Meat Tissue Quality and Functionality

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Handbook of Electroporation

Abstract

The meat industry is currently exploring the feasibility of using pulsed electric field processing to improve the functional properties and quality of lower value tougher meat cuts. The challenge for the meat industry is to produce products that have a standardized and guaranteed quality. This is important as attributes such as color, tenderness, and meat juiciness influence either the initial purchasing (color) or the repurchasing (tenderness and juiciness) behavior of consumers. The microstructural changes generated by pulsed electric field (PEF) processing have the potential to improve meat tenderness and juiciness. The effectiveness of PEF processing is dependent on PEF processing parameters and the properties of the meat; nevertheless the technology has the potential to improve the quality of various meat cuts, resulting in benefits to the meat industry and to consumers. PEF is an energy-efficient food processing technology that can replace uneconomical processing steps currently used in the meat industry to enhance the quality of lower value cuts. This chapter discusses the potential applications of pulsed electric field processing in the enhancement of meat quality and functionality.

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out as part of the Food Industry Enabling Technologies program 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, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    A. U. Alahakoon, F. Faridnia, P. J. Bremer, P. Silcock & I. Oey

  2. Department of Botany, University of Otago, 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    F. Faridnia

  3. Riddet Institute, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    I. Oey

Authors
  1. A. U. Alahakoon
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  2. F. Faridnia
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  3. P. J. Bremer
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  4. P. Silcock
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  5. I. Oey
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to A. U. Alahakoon , F. Faridnia , P. J. Bremer , P. Silcock or I. Oey .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Damijan Miklavcic

Section Editor information

  1. Food Biotechnology & Process Engineering, Technical University of Berlin, Königin-Luisestrasse 22, D-14195, Berlin, Germany

    Dietrich Knorr

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Alahakoon, A.U., Faridnia, F., Bremer, P.J., Silcock, P., Oey, I. (2016). Pulsed Electric Fields Effects on Meat Tissue Quality and Functionality. In: Miklavcic, D. (eds) Handbook of Electroporation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26779-1_179-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26779-1_179-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26779-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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