Softening of foods by pulsed power for aged persons

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25630112
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Power engineering/Power conversion/Electric machinery
• Research Institution: Kumamoto University
• Principal Investigator: Akiyama Hidenori 熊本大学, パルスパワー科学研究所, 教授 (50126827)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HOSSEINI HamidReza 熊本大学, パルスパワー科学研究所, 教授 (00543406)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: パルスパワー / パルス電界 / 非加熱調理器 / 食物の軟化 / 高齢者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Pulsed power has thus far been applied to foods for their sterilization and extraction of vegetable juice; juice yield from sugar beets, for example, has increased using pulsed electric fields. The aging of the Japanese population calls for food softening methods in order to maintain life quality. Here, effects of pulsed power on hardness of vegetables and fruit are investigated using a pulsed power generator. Vegetables or fruit are set between plane electrodes placed into tap water. Foods’ hardness was found to decrease with increasing pulsed power shot number, while its internal temperature did not change. There was no influence of pulsed power on Vitamin C. The influence of the pulsed electric field on phloem rays is considered to cause vegetables and fruits to soften.

Free Research Field

工学