Osmotic dehydration of blueberries pretreated with pulsed electric fields: Effects on dehydration kinetics, and microbiological and nutritional qualities

Abstract

ABSTRACTFresh blueberries were treated by pulsed electric fields (PEF) at 2 kV/cm before osmotic dehydration in 70% cane sugar syrup. The changes in water loss, solids gain, populations of native microorganisms, antioxidant activity, contents of anthocyanins, predominant phenolic acids and flavonols, and total phenolics in blueberries were investigated after PEF pretreatment and during osmotic dehydration at 40°C. Compared with non-PEF-pretreated blueberry samples, PEF pretreatment reduced the osmotic dehydration time of blueberry samples from 120 to 48 h at target moisture content (3.0 g/g initial dry matter). No significant differences (p > 0.05) in total phenolics, antioxidant activity, anthocyanins, and predominant phenolic acids and flavonols were observed between the PEF-pretreated and non-PEF-pretreated blueberry samples. The PEF-pretreated blueberry samples had lower microbial populations than those which were not subjected to PEF pretreatment. Regardless of pretreatment, decreases in anthocyanins, predominant phenolic acids and flavonols, total phenolics, and antioxidant activity in blueberries were observed during the osmotic dehydration process. The results demonstrate that PEF pretreatment significantly reduced the dehydration time and enhanced the microbiological quality of blueberries without affecting their nutritional quality.