Improving Sustainability in Food Processing using MEF

Food manufacturers are challenged by production, cost and efficiency. They are required to respond with speed and flexibility, while achieving minimal energy consumption and waste.

MEF is one of the 'greenest' ways electrical energy can be used in food processing. This arises from direct, simple energy application, volumetric heating, tremendously reduced heating times all minimising energy loss opportunities and providing an outstanding alternative to conventional heating.

MEF differs significantly from the more widely researched Pulse Electric Fields (see abstract), but because no formal definition currently exists, the term is used inconsistently. Some workers reserve 'MEF' for predominantly 'non-thermal' processes using 'ohmic heating' for thermal applications, others use the terms interchangeably. This project considers 'ohmic heating' as a subset of MEF due to the difficulty of divorcing thermal from non-thermal phenomena, as noted in many 'ohmic' publications.

Since 2004 there has been an exponential rise in MEF citations with approx. 315 publications currently available. A recent review describes an extensive range of applications including extraction, protein coagulation, parboiling, blanching, thawing, dough proofing, dehydration, evaporation, peeling, softening, hydro distillation, starch gelatinisation, pasteurisation and sterilisation. In addition a recent opinion paper outlines future MEF research needs, all will be addressed in the project, although allergenic potential suggestions will only be discussed.

For food manufacturers, MEF offers many innovative processing solutions with associated benefits including improved sustainability, reduced environmental impact, increased competitiveness, and intensified processing, enhanced product safety/quality and also waste valorisation. However, to date MEF is largely only explored in research/academic setting, with this information not yet translating to a commercial environment.

Sustainability and increasing resource efficiency is at the core of this project which focuses on the establishment of processing applications for MEF (an extremely 'green' method for superior electrical energy usage in food processing), addressing knowledge gaps currently preventing this technology from achieving its true potential in post farm gate processing of foods thereby reducing the environmental impact of food manufacture.

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