15D-36 |
Design and construction of salt and flavor addition device prior to packaging for pulsed electric field processing |
S. Q. LI1, C. L. Ning, and Q. H. Zhang1. (1) Dept. of Food Science & Technology, The Ohio State Univ., 2015 Fyffe Ct., Columbus, OH 43210 Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology is a nonthermal food processing technology and can help avoiding the detriments of food quality by exposing in the high temperature. Presence of high concentration of salt or other ionizable components makes the PEF processing challenging. To develop a device suitable for the Benco Aseptic Packaging to add salt or other necessary components after PEF processing without contamination. A peristahtic pump was used to meter the flow. A stainless steel pressurized tank was chosen as the additive tank. Flexible and autoclavable tubing was selected to be the main pipeline for fluid delivery. Selection of flow and concentration of the additive was based on calculation of amount of salt needed in the final product. For the testing, 20% salt solution was pumped to the 6-oz cups. The volume were measured and amount of salt calculated for all cups. Sterility of the device was tested by running autoclaved nutrient-broth, package samples and study microbial stability using standard plate count method. PCA and PDA plates were incubated at 37C for 48 hr and 27oC for 4 to 6 days, respectively. The dosage device can deliver 5-20 ml of salt solution to the 6-oz cups and is suitable for use in the processing of vegetable products such as salsa and catchup. No contamination was observed with the nutrient broth runs. The dosage device had a high flexibility to adjust the amount of salt delivered by adjusting either the salt concentration or the volume delivered with a special controller. This makes PEF processing possible for products with high added-salt concentration. This dosage device helps avoid the high ion strengtht in food sample for PEF treatment and, after adding these components back, maintains the fresh flavor of the products.
Session 15D, Food Engineering: Processing Technologies
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