Objective
The objectives of the project are:
1.To apply HTST processes on particulate fruit products to enhance quality while maintaining safety;
2.To determine kinetic data for inactivation of micro-organisms and for changes in quality factors like texture, colour, appearance and taste;
3.To develop the expertise in process engineering in the new heating technologies (microwave heating and Joule effect heating) for the optimization of heat treatment to get sterile particulate fruit products with high quality.
Studies on heat resistance of mould ascospores isolated from fresh fruits showed:
Neosartorya fischeri to be the most heat resistant mould;
Fruit juices could be spoiled only with preheated spores;
Some spore former strains could aerobically grow in tomato paste (those changing the pH during the proliferation and lowering the oxygen content);
The role of bacterial spores at pH value 3.8 to 4.5 in fruit products is complex and the oxygen content exerts an important influence, especially in aseptic packaging.
Serveral thermoresistant glycoenzymes were immobilized in alginate matrix as thermal indicators to control fruit products stability during thermal processes.
The best kinetics of heat inactivation were obtained with the glucose oxidase-Con A complex as tracer, but the model was efficient only until 75 C and at pH 6 to 7.
Kinetic studies on thermal degradation of fruit texture were also investigated. The texture kinetic presented an initial rapid thermal degradation followed by a second slow degradation where the texture was practically constant. The intersection point of the 2 kinetics, when the texture becomes stable and nearly independent to heat degradation is of interest.
To study dielectric behaviour of foodstuffs in radio frequency heaters, dielectric properties of various fruits were determined at 2.7 GHz, using the cavity perturbation technique.
Fruit tissues began to undergo irreversible changes around 70 C (60 C with apples). Before reaching this temperature, all the uncooked samples showed a temperature dependency of the dielectric constant which could be due to the 'additional polarization' caused by the ions inside the cells which moved in the dielectric field until they were blocked by the cell wall and built up a surface charge.
Residence times distribution analysis was xarried out for different holding tube lengths of a tubular heat exchanger. Flow bwhaviour and residence time distributions were measured. This project has contributed to the develoment of new tubular heat exchangers for continuous heat treatments of particulate fruit products.
The objectives of this project are:
- to apply HTST processes to particulate fruit products to enhance quality while maintaining safety;
- to determine kinetic data for inactivation of microorganisms; - to determine kinetic data for changes in duality actors like texture, colour, appearance and taste;
- to develop the expertise in process engineering in the new heating methods (microwave heating and Joule effect heating) for the optimisation of heat treatment and development of a flexible process control system or method to get sterile particulate fruit products with high quality.
The work to be carried out (including project methodology) will be divided in the following sections:
Product characterisation
- Safety control
The first part of the work will consist in a systematic research of the spoilage microorganisms of particulate fruit products, mainly butyric anaerobes (CL. pasteurianum, for example) and heat resistant moulds (ascospore forming moulds like Byssochlamys sp., Neosartorya fisheri and Talaromyces flavus).
The subsequent phase of the project will consist in the evaluation of the heat resistance of the contamination strains by the determination of the D and Z parameters, in function of the different media and the temperatures foreseen for the continuous heat treatment of particulate fruit products.
- Stability control
Many endogenous enzymes are known to be responsible for colour and flavour changes in plant tissues. The most important candidates among this complex of catalysts are the oxidoreductases.
To improve the quality of fruit, indicator enzymes for fruit products will be defined.
For optimising food processing, the kinetics of heat inactivation of the targeted enzyme in the respective products under specific processing conditions will be determined and the observed quality losses will be correlated to residual activities for the indicator enzyme.
- Quality control
The first phase of this aspect of the project will consist in the research of a simple and quick method that can be utilised for quality control in the industry. The texture of the fruit product will be chosen as the most important factors affecting quality. For this purpose, a satisfactory correlation between data affecting quality. For this purpose, a satisfactory correlation between data obtained with commercial instrument (Instrom, tenderometer) and the sensorial analysis of various commercial particulate products will be looked for.
Simultaneously, these experimental methods will serve as a tool to measure the integrity and recognisability of these products after aseptic processing and packaging.
- Process evaluation methods: development and use
Spores, enzymes or other indicator compounds will be incorporated in model solid products such as mechanically and chemically stable water gels, moulled into different shape.
These methods will be developed to check the thermal efficiency of the process. It will also serve as a tool for training about good manufacturing practices.
Process engineering:
- Characterisation of microwave heaters
Measurements of food characteristics in a microwave field will be achieved. Food constants, like the dielectric constant or the loss factor will be investigated in the temperature range 20-150 C in the high frequency and microwave range, in dependence of main components of fruit products (water content, salts, acids, sugars). Measurements will be done by a resonator method, using a scalar network analyzer to determine resonance frequency losses.
A dielectric process with a defined and calculable dielectrical energy absorption will be developed. It is proposed to proceed by designing a defined energy coupling system to obtain instantaneous energy increase at the couple of energy and to calculate the decrease of energy during the process. The adaptation of the generator to avoid scattering losses will further be explored.
- Characterisation of Joule effect heaters
As a first phase in the project, the design and construction of a pilot plant including the tubular heat exchangers will be commenced. Particular emphasis on shape, inner surface roughness, dimensions will be made.
- Two-phase flow characterisation
The experimental work concerning the flow characterisation will deal with the following items:
- residence time distributions studies by the use of chemical and biochemical indicator compounds as tracers,
- flow visualisation by image analysis in transparent tube sections, - modelling of the heat transfer and heat penetration in the fluid and in the particulates by microwave heating and Joule effect heating.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications radio technology radio frequency
- engineering and technology other engineering and technologies food technology
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- engineering and technology materials engineering colors
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture fruit growing
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Coordinator
1070 Bruxelles
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.