Softening of vegetables by pulsed power

Pulsed Power has been applied to foods for the extraction of vegetable juice and sterilization of foods. The juice from sugar beet increased with pulsed electric fields. Since the aging of Japan's population is advancing, the softening of foods becomes important to keep the quality of life. Here, the effect of pulsed power on hardness of vegetables is investigated. A magnetic pulse compression system with maximum of 5 J/pulse, 200 pps and 30 kV is used as a pulsed power source. The vegetables are placed between the plane electrodes immerced into the tap water. Hardness of vegetables is measured by the rheometer (Compac-100II, Sun scientific co.) . The hardness of carrot decreases with the shot number of pulsed power, and becomes one half or one third at 1000 shots. The temperature insides the carrot increases only 3 degrees centigrade with the 1000 shots and the temperature of the tap water is almost constant.