Patent Application
20130084371
The invention relates to the use of silver and/or germanium electrodes in ohmic heating or pulsed electric field (PEF) heating of liquid foods.
Ohmic heating is an advanced thermal processing method wherein liquid food material, which serves as an electrical resistor, is heated by passing electricity through the food material. Electrical energy is dissipated into heat, which results in rapid and uniform heating. Ohmic heating is also called electrical resistance heating, Joule heating, or electro-heating, and may be used for a variety of applications in the food industry. High intensity pulsed electric field (PEF) processing involves the application of pulses of high voltage (typically 20-80 kV/cm) to foods placed between 2 electrodes. Typically the electrodes used in ohmic or PEF heating are titanium, stainless steel, or corrosion resistant hastelloy.
Both ohmic and PEF heating use electrodes and electric current. However, PEF treatment is conducted at ambient, sub-ambient, or slightly above ambient temperature for less than 1 second, minimizing energy loss due to heating of foods. Ohmic heating applies heat continuously to heat up the food matrix.
For food products and beverages that contain large particulates (for example in soup products), the use of conventional heat-transfer techniques frequently necessitates over-processing of the liquid phase to ensure that the center of each particulate is sterilized. This can result in destruction of flavors and nutrients and compromise the organoleptic properties of the particulate. Ohmic heating (as well as PEF heating) allows for faster and more uniform heating of food products which contain particulates without reducing their textural and nutritional quality. Thus, ohmic heating, compared to steam, can prevent heterogeneous heating effects that may cause hot- or cold-spots which compromise the quality and safety of the resultant food product.
An important phenomenon observed in electro heating is related to electrode synergy, heating efficiency, and leaching of the electrode material. Electrode synergy has been reported for stainless steel and titanium electrodes. Synergy is two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable. Silver by itself or electrical heating by itself does not produce Z and D values compared to the Z and D values obtained when used together. Energy efficiency of electrodes has been reported to be 85% for titanium and stainless steel. The electrode material should be energy efficient which means the amount of energy supplied to the electro cell should be efficiently transferred to the food.
It was discovered that the use of silver electrodes during ohmic or PEF heating provides unexpected benefits compared to the use of other electrode materials. The silver provides an anti-microbial effect that unexpectedly reduces the sterilization time and/or heating temperature. That is, silver electrodes provide a heating efficiency much greater than other electrodes. Further the death curve of microorganisms accelerated using silver electrodes (lower Z & D values.)
It was further discovered that other electrodes may provide such anti-microbial effects such as germanium electrodes.
One aspect of the invention is directed to a method of heating a liquid comprising heating the liquid with an ohmic heater comprising at least one silver, silver alloy, germanium, or germanium alloy electrode.
Another aspect of the invention is directed to a method of heating a liquid comprising the liquid with a Pulse Electric Field (PEF) heater comprising at least one silver, silver alloy, germanium, or germanium alloy electrode. Such heating is effective to treat, sterilize, and/or pasteurize the liquid.
Another aspect is directed to the heating of a liquid containing particulates by ohmic heating or PEF heating.
Another aspect of the invention is the heating of a liquid which is a viscous or pumpable fluid.
Ohmic heating is a food processing operation in which heat is internally generated within foods by the passage of alternating electric current. The process enables solid particles to heat as fast as liquids, thus making it possible to use High Temperature Short Time (HTST) sterilization techniques on particulate foods. In ohmic heating, electrodes are necessary to convey the current to the food material to be heated. During heating, slight electrode corrosion occurs mainly via electro-dissolution induced by the low-frequency AC. For example, the ohmic heater utilizes low-frequency (60 Hz to 3 Kz) sinusoidal alternating current.
When an alternating current is applied to an electrolytic cell, the cell shows both dissipative and reactive characteristics. AC induced electrolysis appears closely associated with the minor corrosion of electrodes. It has been further noticed that titanium forms a passive oxide coating (also known as ‘rainbow’ titanium-oxide coating) that protects the metal from further reaction. Use of the titanium electrodes at high temperatures can accelerated the titanium oxide building process and this leads to a decrease of the heating rate.
Electrode Synergy
Thermal effect is an important part of the inactivation mechanism. For example, in one study using titanium electrodes, no difference was found between ohmic and conventional heat treatment on the death kinetics of Zygo Saccharomyces Bailli yeast cells but mild electrical pretreatment of Escherichia Coli decreased the subsequent inactivation requirement.
Recent studies suggested that mild electroporation might occur even under relatively low field strength encountered during ohmic heating, for example the presence of pore forming mechanisms in cellular tissue. A study of the kinetic of inactivation of Subtilis spores using ohmic stainless steel electrodes found that a significant improvement over conventional heating wherein D values dropped from 32.8 at 88° C. to 30.2 at the same temperature. The same conclusion was drawn at 90° C. This study provided evidence of synergy using stainless steel electrodes. The same observations were reported for thermal death kinetics of Escherichia Coli ATCC 25922 in goat milk and Bacillusllus Licheniformis ATCC 14580 spores in cloudberry jam. Significant improvement was shown with ohmic titanium electrodes over conventional heating.
The synergy improvement reported in the literature is only for titanium and stainless steel electrodes. As reflected in this application, it was discovered that the synergy effect of ohmic heating was unexpectedly magnified and enhanced when silver electrodes are used.
Silver
Antimicrobial properties of silver have been known to cultures all around the world for many centuries. The Phoenicians stored water and other liquids in silver coated bottles to discourage contamination by microbes. Silver dollars were put into milk bottles to keep milk fresh. Further, water tanks in ships and airplanes that are “silvered” are able to render water potable for months. In 1893, the antibacterial effectiveness of various metals was noted and this property was named the oligodynamic effect. It was later found that out of all the metals with antimicrobial properties, silver has the most effective antibacterial action and the least toxicity to animal cells. Silver became commonly used in medical treatments, such as those of wounded soldiers in World War I, to deter microbial growth. Silver is an approved contact surface by the FDA. Further, it was known that electrically generated silver (10 ppm or more) can be used for sterilization if added to a liquid. However, such relatively large amounts of silver cannot be used in beverages intended for consumption because it is above the drinking water standard of 0.5 ppm.
Silver Electrodes in Ohmic Heating
The present invention is directed to the use of silver or silver alloy electrodes in the ohmic heating to enhance the synergy effects of ohmic heating. Silver allow electrodes may be sterling silver or silver/germanium electrodes. The present invention leverages the antimicrobial property of the silver as well as achieves low D values.
The silver or silver alloy electrodes are stable, durable, and do not corrode. The electrodes will leach silver in amounts of 1 ppm or less, easily providing the amount of silver desired for beverages of 0.5 ppm or less. The electrodes may be used under any voltage and/or frequency.
Thus the present invention uses silver electrodes instead of, for example, the more commonly used stainless steel (where leaching of chromium might occur) and/or titanium (where energy efficiency degrades over time) and/or corrosion resistant hastelloy (where copper and nickel might leach). Leaching of silver is comparable to titanium and much better than stainless steel. It was discovered that silver electrodes have surprisingly more synergy on bacterial kill compared to titanium and stainless steel electrodes. In addition, silver electrodes provide surprisingly better energy efficiency compared to titanium and stainless steel electrodes.
Typical heating temperatures for ohmic heating can be up to 200° C. The choice of the temperature not only depends on the microorganism but also on the fluid type. The amount of heat required with common electrodes such as titanium or stainless steel is higher than the amount of heat required by silver electrodes to reach the same temperature. In other words the efficiency of silver electrode is at least 5% higher than the other electrodes. In addition with silver electrodes, it was discovered that less heat is required to achieve the same sterilization/pasteurization results (Z&D VALUES) compared to the above mentioned two electrodes. In fact, it was determined that there is a synergistic effect by the silver electrode and the heat. For example, the sterilization temperature for liquid could be decreased from a prior temperature of 135° C. to a temperature below 95° C. depending on the microorganism.
It was discovered that utilizing ohmic heating with silver electrodes as disclosed herein, electrode integrity is as good as the titanium electrode and much better than the stainless steel electrodes. A maximum of 0.5 ppm of silver loss was noticed compared to 0.3 ppm for titanium and 10 ppm for stainless steel. This translates to better electrode integrity for silver and longer use.
Therefore, the present invention is directed to the use of silver electrodes, rather than the more common electrodes in ohmic heating to enhance the synergy effects of ohmic heating by providing the antimicrobial property of the silver and achieving low D values. Silver also provides an unexpected reduction in come up time and/or sterilization temperature of the ohmic heating.
Silver Electrodes in PEF Heating
One skilled in the art, presented with the findings herein concerning ohmic heating with silver electrodes, would also expect the same or similar results for Pulse Electric field (PEF). PEF heating involves treating foods placed between electrodes by high voltage pulses in the order of 20 to 80 kV (usually for a couple of microseconds). The applied high voltage results in an electric field that causes microbial inactivation. The electric field may be applied in the form of exponentially decaying, square wave, bipolar, or oscillatory pulses and at ambient, sub-ambient, or slightly above-ambient temperature. After the treatment, the food is packaged aseptically and stored under refrigeration
High intensity pulsed electric field (PEF) processing involves the application of pulses of high voltage (typically 20-80 kV/cm) to foods placed between 2 electrodes. PEF treatment is generally conducted at ambient, sub-ambient, or slightly above ambient temperature for less than 1 s, minimizing energy loss due to heating of foods.
Germanium Electrodes
Like silver, germanium electrodes offer anti-microbial properties. Preliminary tests demonstrate that germanium electrodes will offer the same synergy effects as silver. Hence, the present application is further directed to the use of germanium and germanium alloy electrodes. For convenience, the rest of the application is discussed in terms of silver electrodes, but it is expected that germanium electrodes may be substituted for or used with silver electrodes.
Heating Liquids
The ohmic or PEF heating with silver electrode(s) may be used to heat any suitable liquid such as beverages including dairy beverages (milk products, drinkable yogurts), juices, carbonated beverage syrup, and non-carbonated beverages, such as but not limited to orange, pineapple, rape, mango, lemon ETC juices and beverage syrups. The liquid may be any pumpable fluid such as purees, high solid content fluids, pastes, syrups, and proteins such as, but not limited to, eggs, jams, and potatoes. The liquid may also be a soup such as, but not limited to, chicken, beef, and/or vegetable, as liquid broths or soup containing particulates such as meat chunks, vegetables, rice, or pasta. Other dairy products such as those containing fruits, grains, and nuts.
Particulates present in the liquid include, but are not limited to, vegetables, fruits such as berries, meats, gels, and grains such as rice, corn, or wheat including particulates prepared from grains such as noodles and cereals. The average size of the particulates typically ranges from 0.5 mm to 2 cm, in particular 0.5 mm to 10 mm. The particulates should be of a size that will allow them pass between the two electrode gaps. The particulate shape may be any suitable shape such as cubes, spheres, and strings, or may be irregular shapes.
The liquid is heated from ambient to at least 40° C. using two electrodes with and without cooling between applications of heat. For instance in ohmic heating, the liquid is generally heated up to 150° C., for instance 50° C. to 150° C. In PEF, the liquid is heated up to 50° C. to 65° C. with cooling in between applications. The residence time and effective temperature is dictated by the product type. Orange juice come up time, for example, is 2 min (voltage 110V and electrode distance=7 cm) to heat to 85° C. in ohmic heating or is heated with several pulses with PEF heating.
The liquid is heated for at least one second depending on the residence time at required temperature. The time of heating will depend on the volume of liquid being heated and other factors such as conductivity, applied voltage, distance between the electrode, and amount of particulate in the liquid, and the size of particulate.
The liquid may be stirred to distribute the heat faster. And the flow between the two electrodes should be turbulent to evenly distribute the heat and to avoid hot spots.
Both electrodes may be silver or one electrode may be silver and the other another metal such as titanium. In one aspect, one electrode is silver and the other is titanium. The size of the electrode depends on the flow rate and the residence time required achieving certain temperature. The heating could be done using several electrodes in series or in parallel to achieve required temperature and to handle required flow rates.
The current for the ohmic heating may be any suitable frequency such as low-frequency (sinusoidal, square, triangle) alternating current. Typical frequencies are 50 Hz to 3 Kz). The preferred frequency of this impounded is 50 Hz to 2 Kz for instance 60 Hz. Since this is the supplied frequency in the US and the rest of the world. Higher frequencies will require the addition of frequency control unit which could be expensive.
This process could be applied for any pumpable liquid regardless of viscosity and pH. The flow rate and the distance between the two electrodes will determine the final temperature of the fluid.
Electrochemical reactions were investigated with batch ohmic unstirred equipment as shown in
Four different electrodes were tested: includes silver, sterling silver, titanium, stainless steel 303.
For temperature measurements three (type T) thermocouples were used.
Physical properties of the test solution (electrolyte) were adjusted to required parameters. Ohmic cell was filled with 530 ml water solution, and electrodes were connected to the power source. For each set of parameters at least three replica measurements were conducted.
Effect of Material of Construction on Come Up Time
In these set of experiments the pH of water was adjusted to 6, the electrical conductivity was set to 3 mS/cm and 3 voltages were applied (125, 175 and 225V).
Effect of Continuous Usage of Titanium Electrodes on Come-Up Time
Titanium electrodes showed an increase of come-up times with increasing duration of use of the electrodes.
Electrode Material Efficiency
Finally, the efficiency of each pair of electrodes were calculated against the theoretical energy consumption and plotted in
The effect of titanium and silver electrodes during ohmic heating on the D values of selected microorganisms in a model product was evaluated. The model product was chosen to be water based broth at pH 6.0 with electrical conductivity of 3 mS/cm. The same Ohmic equipment described above was used in this work.
The following strains were used in this study.
Listeria monocytogenes Scott A ATCC 49594 (FSC-CC 2473)
Salmonella Senftenberg 775 W ATCC 43845 (FSC-CC 1249)
Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 9763 (FSC-CC 2764)
Neosartorya fischeri. ATCC 96179 (FSC-CC 3110)
Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris Silliker isolate from orange juice (FSC-CC 2239)
Clostridium butyricum ATCC 19398
Microbiological Analysis: The samples (5 ml) were aseptically removed from the unit and combined with 45 ml. Butterfield's phosphate buffer. Serial dilutions (1:10 vol/vol) were analyzed by the pour plate technique (Table 1). The appearance of typical colonies was considered confirmatory.
L. monocytogenes
S. Senftenberg
S. cerevisiae
N. fischeri
A. acidoterrestris
C. butyricum
Data Analysis: The base ten logarithms of the plate counts were plotted against time for each temperature and the best fit line was statistically determined by least squares linear regression. The D value is the time required, in seconds or minutes, for the population to decrease by 90% or 1-log when held at a certain temperature. Mathematically, it is the negative inverse of the slope of the regression line.
Results: The ohmic unit was operated at 120 volt. A stir bar was placed in the ohmic cell to ensure uniform temperature. The solution was stirred slowly during treatments. The ohmic unit was gently washed by soapy water and rinsed thoroughly with water between each run.
D-values: A summary of experimental D-values and coefficient of determination (r2) for each product is shown in Tables 2 thru 7. High coefficients of determination (r2) show a strong relationship between the log values and the pull times. The D-values for S. cerevisiae for the silver electrode trials were not calculated due to the instant die-off at 50° C. or higher. Test results showed that the silver electrode trials were more effective in reducing the number of the test microorganisms in the model product compared to the titanium electrode trials.
After treatment with silver electrodes up to 85° C. for 3 seconds, samples of orange juice were collected and analyzed for total bacterial count. In addition, samples obtained under the same conditions but using titanium electrode were collected and analyzed for total bacterial for comparison. Table 8 below summarizes the results.
The data shows that when silver was used, the total bacterial burden per 1 ml solution was always below 3 in contrast to when titanium was used, the total bacterial burden per 1 ml jumped to 130 after 15 days. This data indicates the preservative effectiveness of the silver in beverage.
Runs were performed by ohmic heating of the liquid water (pH=3.75, conductivity=3 mS/m) to 95° C. and then terminating the run.
Experiments were conducted with pineapple chunks in pineapple juice using two silver electrodes.
These set of experiments were performed to study the effect of conductivity on silver electrode integrity. The experiments were conducted using the above described ohmic cell and water with a pH of 4. The conductivity was adjusted to the required value using sodium sulfate. Then 530 CC of the solution was placed in the Ohmic cell and heated to the required temperature. Once the desired temperature is reached, the run was terminated and samples were collected. The samples were labeled and send for analysis to a certified laboratory. The laboratory performed AOAC test Method 984.27 for silver concentration.
The next set of runs was performed to study the effect of pH, of the heated solution, on silver electrode stability. In the same manner mentioned above all runs were performed using water with a 1 mS/cm conductivity and different pHs.
Finally, to examine the effect of voltage on the silver electrode stability these experiments were performed. The same procedure mentioned above was followed. The water solution pH was adjusted to 4 and the conductivity was kept at 1 mS/cm. The 530 cc of water was heated to the desired temperature.
The same study was performed for the titanium electrode, sterling silver electrodes and stainless steel electrodes.
Based on the metal satiability leaching data presented in this section one can conclude that silver and titanium electrodes are superior to the stainless steel electrode, the most commonly used, with respect to durability.
Experiments were performed as follows: Two samples of 530 cc of beverage were heated up to 95C in a titanium electrode Ohmic cell. One sample was dosed with ionic silver ions while the other was kept with no silver ions. The silver ions were added at around 1 ppm to the treated liquids. The objective of this work is to find the effect of adding ionic silver and make comparison to the no silver (titanium heating) and the silver electrode heating. Both samples (with ionic and no ionic silver) were dosed with mold and/or yeast after the ohmic treatment. The samples were analyzed with respect to time for mold and yeast. It was determined that both silver and titanium were effective against yeast, but not against mold. It was observed that ionic silver added to the liquid will not kill molds but can kill bacteria. In order to kill molds, 10 ppm of ionic silver is needed which is too high for beverages suitable for consumption
While the invention has been described with respect to specific examples including presently preferred modes of carrying out the invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are numerous variations and permutations of the above described systems and techniques that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Ser. No. 61/541,115 filed Sep. 30, 2012, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61541115 | Sep 2011 | US |
