Food texture as affected by ohmic heating: Mechanisms involved, recent findings, benefits, and limitations

Background: Food texture is an important quality characteristic that affects sensory perception and consumer satisfaction. Thermal processing applies to food material for several reasons including palatability improvement and shelf life extension. Ohmic heating is an energy- and time-saving technique that was previously proposed as an alternative to conventional heating methods in the food industry. Scope and approach: Investigating the effects of ohmic processes on food quality parameters, such as texture, is an important step towards the industrial adaptation of ohmic heating technology. This review focuses specifically on the effects of ohmic heating on food texture and tries to elucidate the mechanisms behind the changes in textural attributes during an ohmic process as compared to the classical heating method. Key findings and conclusions: Achieving a predefined product texture in a shorter time and the uniformity of product texture are among the benefits of ohmic heating. However, several challenges (e.g. the possibility of negative effects on the chemical composition of the product and high capital investment) should be addressed for the industrial adoption of this emerging technology.