Interaction and multi-objective effects of multiple non-thermal treatments of sour cherry juice: pesticide removal, microbial inactivation, and quality preservation

BACKGROUND: The consumption of pesticide-contaminated sour cherries as fruit or juice has become a major health concern, and so the search for alternative processing technologies, such as pulsed electric fields (PEF), ozone (O), and ultrasonication (US) has intensified. The objectives of this experimental study of sour cherry juice were fourfold: (1) to quantify the removal efficiency of newprocessing technologies (PEF, O, US), and their combinations, for the pesticides chlorpyrifos ethyl,pi-fluvalinate, cyprodinil, pyraclostrobin, and malathion; (2) to detect their impact on physical, bioactive, and sensory properties; (3) to determine their microbial inactivation levels for Escherichia coli O157:H7, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas syringae subs. Syringae, and Penicillum expansum; and (4) to jointly optimize multiple responses of physical, quality, and sensory properties, pesticides, andmicrobial inactivation. RESULTS: Except for all the O treatments, the physical, bioactive and sensory properties of sour cherry juice were not adversely affected by the treatments. The joint optimization suggested PEF1 (24.7 kV cm(-1) for 327 mu s), PEF2 (24.7 kV cm(-1) for 655 mu s), PEF2+ O+ US, US, and PEF2+ O as the five best treatments. PEF2+ O+ US best achieved both pesticide removal andmicrobial inactivation. CONCLUSION: PEF2+ O+ US provided promising reductions in pesticide andmicrobial loads. (C) 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.