Pulsed Electric Fields enhances calcium infusion for improving the hardness of blanched carrots

This study demonstrates the feasibility of using PEF to accelerate the infusion of calcium ions into carrot to preserve its hardness after blanching. It was found that overnight soaking of carrots with CaCl2 could be shortened tremendously in which the passive diffusion of calcium ions into the carrot cells can occur instantaneously during PEF at a lower concentration of CaCl2. Moreover, the application of a PEF-assisted calcium infusion pre-treatment can produce blanched carrots with similar hardness as those preserved with overnight calcium infusion followed by moderate temperature precooking at 60 °C for 30 min. This implies that PEF could replace the precooking step to achieve similar carrot hardness after blanching. More importantly, this study had gathered new information on how consumers perceived the hardness of blanched carrots preserved by PEF-assisted calcium infusion technique and on the bioaccessibility of carotenoids after an in vivo mastication to orally process the carrots.