Dry-salted cod (Gadus morhua) rehydration assisted by pulsed electric fields : modelling of mass transfer kinetics

• Published in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
• Main Authors: Genovese J., Tappi S., Tylewicz U., D'Elia F., De Aguiar Saldanha Pinheiro A. C., Rocculi P.
• Other Authors: J. Genovese, S. Tappi, U. Tylewicz, F. D'Elia, A.C. De Aguiar Saldanha Pinheiro, P. Rocculi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2022
• Subjects: dry-salted cod; mass transfer; Peleg model; pulsed electric field; rehydration kinetics; Settore AGR/15 - Scienze e Tecnologie Alimentari; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/955139; https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.11852

BACKGROUND: Dry-salted cod (Gadus morhua) must be rehydrated before consumption and this step can take up to 5 days. Desalting of cod on an industrial scale poses many problems, mainly related to the long processing times and the quality of the final product. For this reason, many researchers have focused on finding new desalting methods to improve mass transfer. The application of pulsed electric fields (PEF) has been proposed as an alternative method for improving mass transfer in many food processes. However, there is no previous literature on the use of PEF to improve animal tissue rehydration. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the influence of two PEF pre-treatments [PEF (1) 500 V cm−1 and PEF (2) 1000 V cm−1] on mass transport kinetics during the rehydration process of salted cod. The rehydration process was carried out under static conditions for 6 days, immersing dry-salted cod samples in tap water (5 ± 0.5°C). RESULTS: The results show that the use of PEF technology increases the rate of the rehydration process of dry-salted cod and influences the redistribution of salt. In general, the samples pre-treated with PEF showed higher weight gain and lower salt loss than the control samples during the rehydration process. CONCLUSION: The application of PEF prior to rehydration of salted cod samples could be of interest to the food industry as a result of a higher process yield (higher weight gain) and the possibility to reduce the water renewal because less NaCl is lost in the wastewater.