Extended Shelf Life for Juice with OptiCept’s PEF Technology According to CREA Study
The Italian research organisation CREA, (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics), confirms extended shelf life and quality improvements for freshly pressed juice. Using OptiCept's PEF technology, they have managed to extend the shelf life of blood orange juice by 15–20 days while improving the nutritional values.
CREA conducted experiments with OptiCept's PEF system to extend the shelf life of juices. These tests, carried out at their Research Center for Olive, Fruit, and Citrus Crops in Acireale, Sicily, Italy, used blood orange juice and found significant improvements in shelf life while maintaining nutritional values.
"PEF treatment has proven to be very effective in inactivating microorganisms, leading to longer shelf life. Additionally, it improves the nutritional and health properties of fresh blood orange juice. This demonstrates the great potential of OptiCept's PEF technology to produce freshly pressed juices with better health quality and longer shelf life. OptiCept's technology is particularly suitable for the industry as it can easily be integrated into existing processing lines," says Simona Fabroni, Ph.D., and Senior Researcher at CREA.
"We see great potential for freshly pressed juice with extended shelf life and improved nutritional properties. Consumers are becoming more health-conscious, and the industry faces challenges in meeting demand efficiently. With these results, which will be published in scientific journals, the industry will recognize our technology's potential to meet this need," says Thomas Lundqvist, CEO of OptiCept Technologies.
CREA will continue testing other types of juices and the results will now be published in a scientific report.
CREA is the leading Italian research institute in agriculture and food, operating under the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf). OptiCept and CREA have a leasing agreement to investigate the effects of PEF on juices from local raw materials.