Indice
1. Insights on your professional background and how started your adventure at ELEA GmbH?
Thanks to his thesis on shelf life extension of juices, Dr. Stefan Toepfl got in touch with the applicability of Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology.
Through the spin-off ELEA, Dr. Stefan managed with his team to take this technology into the industrial practice by focusing on developing industry ready systems to be offered for sale for food industrials.
2. According to you, how does ELEA innovate in food safety?
ELEA is contributing to food safety through Pulsed electric field technology, “we ensure the food safety by using the minimum amount of energy and the minimum amount of damage to the product” as explained by Dr. Stefan.
Practically speaking, Pulsed electric field is opening up cell membranes of the product to be treated with electric pulses to kill existing microbes and it extends consequently the overall product shelf life.
3. Certainly there are many advantages of PEF, but can you give us the three most relevant advantages of PEF in food industry?
Second advantage is cell opening and mass transport improvement that allows to change the texture of agricultural products by opening up the cell membranes and softening the texture accordingly. The third one is
“The potential to inactivate microorganisms and to extend the shelf life without the need to pasteurize the product” as cited by Dr. Stefan.
4. What are the issues that PEF system developed by ELEA can directly tackle?
ELEA managing director expressed that the PEF is tackling directly paths where it is interesting to open up a cellular structure.
The Pulsed Electric Field system comes to replace the thermal processes that induces also cell disruption and “instead of cooking a certain vegetable we treat it with lower heat amounts …and we achieve the same effect softening the tissue and making it less breakable” as explained by Dr. Stefan.
5. What are the implications of Pulsed electric field on Food snacks safety and quality?
“Fruit dried snacks are benefiting from better cutting and faster moisture removal with lower energy, lower heat and lower time requirements.” as clarified by our guest.
6. How does ELEA respond to the shelf life requirements of food retailers?
Supermarkets seek to guarantee different choice options and constantly available products on the shelves.
Through adding the PEF treatment to the production process, the product shelf life is optimized and numerous resulting benefits emerge for producers and retailers. In fact, the product storage options are improved with broad production planning possibilities.
On top of that, the final product is characterized by a high quality articulated in the freshness and the authentic taste.
7. How is ELEA able to customize the Pulsed electric field technology machines following food product specific requirements?
“the pulse generation is always the same, we are generating pulses by rectifying energy which comes out of a socket into pulses” as illustrated by Dr. Stefan.
Yet, the application is very product specific and differs according to the product prerequisites such as the size and the physical state.
For example, juices require to be pumped into the system while meat products require low water usage to avoid cross-contamination, other products may require spinning wheels to be transported in the system.
8. Can the consumer distinguish between a PEF treated product and fresh product?
Example of vegetable chips:
At the production line, it is clearly noticeable the change in oil amount consumed in the frying stage because “the oil yield or the oil uptake would increase with PEF off” as clarified by ELEA managing director.
In addition, when employing PEF, “you would notice on the end product, a more crunchy texture and less oil” as compared by Stefan.
Example of Orange juice:
When comparing PEF treated orange juice to the freshly squeezed product, the taste remains the same.
On the other hand, if compared against pasteurized products, the second show taste differences because of the thermal process.
Conclusions
Pulsed electric field technology developed by ELEA GmbH is proving its efficiency in solving delicate issues that the food industry is facing nowadays. As most of food retailers require long shelf life products, the PEF technology is upgrading the product both quality and safety by conserving its freshness without any detrimental effects on the product nutritional properties or taste.
Babbel for Business
InnovEat is a serie of interviews on worldwide agri-food innovations developed in partnership with Babbel for Business, the language learning solution for companies. Already over 800 companies use Babbel for Business as part of their professional development programs, as formal or casual training, or employee benefit.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Toepfl
Stefan Toepfl is food technologist and received his PhD in food process engineering at Berlin University of Technology in 2006. As process specialist at the German Institute of Food Technologies, DIL, his research interest have focused on efficient and sustainably food production techniques, plant based protein processing and process automation. Since 2009 he is professor at the University of Applied Sciences, Osnabrück, Germany. Since 2017 he is managing director of Elea GmbH, a spin off entity for marketing Pulsed Electric Field systems for the food industry.
