16. Fruit Preservation by Ohmic Heating and Pulsed Electric Fields

It is well known that fruits have attractive appearance and flavor and are rich sources of bioactive compounds. Thus, consumers are demanding for easy ways of consumption where their health beneficial properties are kept. For these reasons, technologists and scientists have been focused on the development of technologies able to preserve fruits derivatives with fresh-like characteristics and maintaining their phytochemical concentration. Ohmic heating (OH) and high-intensity pulsed electric fields (HIPEF) have emerged as alternatives to conventional thermal pasteurization. Both electrical processes have shown high efficacy to inactivate several microorganisms, reducing at the same time the detrimental effects caused by heat applied during common pasteurization or sterilization. Several studies have been carried out during the past decades in order to elucidate the effectiveness of these techniques, obtaining promising results. This chapter gathers the most significant information about the use of OH or HIPEF in different fruits, basic principles of application, their effects over microorganisms and fruit properties, and a brief review of commercial implementations and environmental considerations.