How to comprehensively improve juice quality: a review of the impacts of sterilization technology on the overall quality of fruit and vegetable juices in 2010–2021, an updated overview and current issues

Abstract

Fruit and vegetable juices (FVJ) are rich in nutrients, so they easily breed bacteria, which cause microbial pollution and rapid deterioration of their quality and safety. Sterilization is an important operation in FVJ processing. However, regardless of whether thermal sterilization or non-thermal sterilization is used, the effect and its impact on the overall quality of FVJ are strongly dependent on the processing parameters, microbial species, and FVJ matrix. Therefore, for different types of FVJ, an understanding of the impacts that different sterilization technologies have on the overall quality of the juice is important in designing and optimizing technical parameters to produce value-added products. This article provides an overview of the application of thermal and non-thermal technique in the field of FVJ processing over the past 10 years. The operating principle and effects of various technologies on the inactivation of microorganisms and enzymes, nutritional and functional characteristics, physicochemical properties, and sensory quality of a wide range of FVJ are comprehensively discussed. The application of different combinations of hurdle technology in the field of FVJ sterilization processing are also discussed in detail. Additionally, the advantages, limitations, and current application prospects of different sterilization technologies are summarized.

Graphical abstract

The graphical abstract shows common sterilization technologies of fruit and vegetable juices and their features.

Keywords:

• Hurdle technology
• non-thermal sterilization
• preservation
• quality
• thermal sterilization

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interest.

Authors’ contributions

Ma Tingting: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-Reviewing and Editing. Jiaqi Wang: Methodology, Investigation, Visualization, Writing-Original draft preparation. Lan Tian: Methodology, Investigation. Xiangyu Sun and Xuebo Liu: Conceptualization, Writing – Review and Editing. Shihan Bao, Qinyu Zhao and Qian Ge: Methodology, Investigation, Data Curation.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Project (31801560), the Innovation Capacity Support Plan of Shaanxi Province (2022NY-039, 2020-TD-47, 2022ZDLNY04-04), and the Xi’an Science and Technology Project (20193061YF049NS049).