“Currently, consumers’ concerns and consciousness about safety and nutritiousness of food consumptions are increasing. Fresh and fresh-like products have become more attractive in the market than the same kind of products produced by heat process.”
But heating isn’t the only method to preserve, say, rice pudding – you could pulse 33,000 volts though it instead. A joint US / Turkey / Thai investigation in 2008 did just that – with promising results. The team developed their own rice-pudding recipe (see diagram) and then exposed it to Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) treatment – the results of which showed that the pudding’s shelf life could be considerably extended whilst maintaining its fresh-like appearance.
See: PULSED ELECTRIC FIELD PROCESSING OF FORMULATED RICE PUDDING by P. RATANATRIWONG, G. AKDEMIR EVRENDILEK and Q.H. ZHANG in the Journal of Food Safety, 28, (2008) 126–141.
Notes:
• The diagram above is a pie chart of a rice pudding.
• The research project was funded by the U.S. Army Natick RD&E Center.