Non-Thermal Processing of a Protein Functional Beverage Using Pulsed Electric Fields: Escherichia coli Inactivation and Effect on Proteins

The application of pulsed electric fields (PEFs) for the inactivation Escherichia coli, suspended in a protein shake beverage and diluted with sterilized distilled water was carried out. Square bipolar pulses range 25–40 kV/cm field intensities were applied at different frequencies (400–900 Hz) to investigate effect PEF conditions on microbial population proteins relevant this functional beverage. treatment temperature kept below lethal microorganism under investigation. As power consumption plays an important role efficiency application, dissipated also estimated. Four log reductions E. coli obtained 10 40 intensity 25 intensity. PEF-treated whey-protein concentrates showed less denaturation than thermally treated concentrates, especially lower (0% ± 0.007 900 Hz, 4.41% 0.008 400 Hz). Soy isolates manifested high sensitivity processing resulted aggregation structure.