Pulsed Electric Fields Technology for Healthy Food Products

A great number of research works have demonstrated the feasibility of pulsed electric fields (PEF) technology as a novel treatment to obtain safe and high-quality foods with significant concentration of health-related compounds. PEF can be applied either as a preservation process with the potential to substitute conventional heat treatments or as a way to assist common industrial food processes with the aim of enhancing the characteristics of the final product and improving their efficiency in terms of processing time and yield. PEF application provides an excellent advantage to retain significant amounts of valuable compounds, due to its non-thermal nature, thus resulting in safe high-quality foods from both sensory and nutritional points of view, which is greatly appreciated by current consumers. This review gathers the most relevant information related to the application of PEF, using either high or moderate intensities of processing conditions, to different food matrices with the aim of enhancing their health-related attributes and improve the efficiency of some processes. The main challenges and opportunities for being implemented at industrial level are highlighted.