Electrical Conductivities of Liquid Egg Products and Fruit Juices Exposed to High Pulsed Electric Fields

Electrical conductivity can be used to monitor important changes in a food product during pulsed electric field (PEF) processing. Electrical conductivities of selected fruit juices (namely apple, orange, and pineapple juices) and liquid egg products (namely whole egg, yolk, and egg white) were determined online during a PEF treatment. The property was measured at broad processing temperatures ranging from 5 to 55°C. Electrical conductivity increased linearly with increasing temperatures for all the products. The liquid egg products have the highest overall electrical conductivity varying from 0.22 to 1.1 S/m whereas fruit juice products have the lowest electrical conductivity ranging from 0.13 to 0.63 S/m. Regression equations of electrical conductivity as functions of temperature were developed. This paper provides a database and equation correlations of food electrical conductivity that could be used to design and optimize PEF process.