Novel hydrothermodynamic food processing technology

摘要

A novel hydrothermodynamic (HTD) technology for simultaneous crushing, homogenizing and pasteurization of whole food in a turbulent flow as a single-unit operation was developed. The HTD technology is based on the phenomena of high turbulence and cavitation in viscous liquids. HTD differs from hydrody-namic (HD) cavitation because it fully utilizes heat generated in the turbulent flow for product pasteurization. Pilot-scale HTD processing of whole blueberry resulted in homogeneous suspension with 13% solids, 1.45-2.76 Pa s viscosity, stable texture and low sedimentation. HTD processing minimized effect of thermal degradation of bioactive phenolics and increased shelf-life of pasteurized blueberry food. Pasteurization at 95 ℃ provided ＜10 CFU/g microbial load, which was satisfactory for long-term storage. This research proved the potential of HTD technology for manufacturing of innovative natural whole foods with high nutritional and nutraceutical values.