Non‐thermal technologies and its current and future application in the food industry: a review

• Published in: International journal of food science & technology Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhi‐Hong, Wang, Lang‐Hong, Zeng, Xin‐An, Han, Zhong, Brennan, Charles S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Application; Food; Food industry; Food preservation; Food processing; Food processing industry; Food technology; foods; healthy diet; heat treatment; High temperature; non‐thermal technologies; nutrient content; Sensory properties; shelf life; temperature
• ISSN: 0950-5423; 1365-2621
• DOI: 10.1111/ijfs.13903

Summary In recent years, consumers have been demanding convenient and healthy foods which have ‘fresh‐like’ characteristics while still being safe and a long shelf‐life. These requirements are hard to achieve using existing traditional thermal food processing technologies and the innovative new food process and preservation technologies based on thermal processing systems are needed. However, non‐thermal technologies in food processing do not generate high temperature and use short treatment times. This means that the nutritional components of foodstuffs are better retained, and the sensory properties of foods are less changed compared with traditional thermal processing. The aim of this review was to present non‐thermal technologies applications and its mechanism in food industry in recently, and to explore the potential application prospects of combining non‐thermal treatments applied in food industry because it not only could overcomes the drawback of single technology, but also can enhances the processing efficiency at lower treatment intensity. The main nonthermal technologies were used in the food processing, and the combining non‐thermal technologies will become the research direction.