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Preservation of functional fruit juices using hurdle technology

Although juices can be enriched with various functional ingredients, they can also be obtained by blending different fruit juices with higher levels of functional compounds. However, the short shelf-life of these products fostered the developments of innovative non-thermal technologies capable of retaining nutritive and sensory qualities while still preserving food safety. In order to use the benefits of milder processing conditions from the abovementioned technologies, researchers applied the “hurdle” concept. This concept involves using different processing technologies at slighter operating conditions than when each is used alone. The major advantage of this approach is referred to as the synergistic effect of various mechanisms (e.g., cavitation, electroporation) resulting in a high-quality product. For instance, “hurdle” technology for preservation of juices commonly combines pulsed electric field (PEF), high hydrostatic pressure (HPP), and high-power ultrasound (HPU). The additional combining of any of these technologies with thermal processes under lower temperatures (<70 °C) is also used. In contrast to conventional thermal processing, this concept could provide the microbiological safety with minimal nutritional and sensory degradation. However, the operating parameters of each technology need optimization to achieve maximum effectiveness. Finally, it can be concluded that the positive outlook of “hurdle” technology as well as its application in the food industry can be expected to flourish even more in the future.

food safety ; functional ingredient ; high-power ultrasound ; high-pressure processing ; pulsed electric field

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