Multi-pass high pressure homogenization (MP-HPH) of tomato juice: effect on the rheological properties

The high pressure homogenization (HPH) is a promising technology that has been recently proposed as unit operation capable of improving food properties, in special rheological behaviour. It has been shown that the multi-pass HPH (MP-HPH) at lower homogenization pressures can produce the same changes on enzyme activity and microbial inactivation than processing with one-pass at higher PH, but with smaller processing costs. The present work evaluated the effect of MP-HPH on the rheological properties and particle size distribution (PSD) of tomato juice. The HPH disrupted the suspended particles and increased the juice consistency, whose rheological behaviour was described by the Herschel-Bulkley model. The asymptotic effect of the homogenization pressure was confirmed. However, the number of homogenization passes has not affected the juice rheological properties. The positive effect of the HPH process for increasing the tomato juice consistency should only be achieved by increasing the homogenization pressure. (C) All Rights Reserved