Application of Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) for Improving the Quality of MSME Tomato Sauce: A Comprehensive Pre- and Post-Treatment Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12928/jafost.v7i3.14764Keywords:
Microbiological safety, Non-thermal processing, Pulsed electric field, Sensory quality, Tomato sauceAbstract
The increasing demand for high-quality, minimally processed foods has driven interest in non-thermal technologies such as pulsed electric field (PEF). This study evaluated the effect of PEF treatment on Deepika tomato sauce produced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in Malang, Indonesia. Samples were divided into control and PEF-treated groups. PEF was applied at 10 kV/cm, with pulse frequencies of 1–1000 Hz for approximately 2 seconds. pH, aroma, taste, proximate composition, heavy metals, and microbiological quality were compared before and after treatment. The pH remained 3.8, while the characteristic tomato aroma and taste were retained. Crude fiber changed from 2.09% to 2.08%, ash from 3.73% to 3.75%, carbohydrate from 26.40% to 23.34%, protein from 0.89% to 0.07%, and crude fat from 8.66% to 8.40%. Pb, Cd, Hg, and As were not detected. Cu remained 0.8 mg/kg and Zn changed from 3.7 to 3.3 mg/kg. TPC decreased from 3.4 × 10⁴ to 9.2 × 10² CFU/mL (1.57 log reduction), while YMC decreased from 6.2 × 10⁴ to 3.8 × 10¹ CFU/mL (3.21 log reduction). This study contributes to provide an integrated pre- and post-treatment assessment of PEF applied to an MSME-scale viscous tomato sauce in Indonesia, linking sensory, nutritional, heavy-metal, and microbiological quality within one evaluation framework. The findings support further optimization of PEF parameters for small-scale tomato-sauce processing.
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