LAUSR

Abstract The effects of pulsed light (PL) processing parameters such as depth of juice layer (1, 3, 5 mm), distance from the lamp (5, 10 cm) and number of pulses (0–50 pulses) on the inactivation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in verjuice, a clarified beverage obtained from freshly-squeezed unripe grapes, were investigated. A reduction of 0.96 ± 0.27 log CFU/mL was achieved by applying a dose of 34 J/cm2 (1-mm layer depth, 5-cm distance, 50 pulses). PL was combined with mild heating (MH) at 43, 45 and 47 °C to increase its inactivation efficacy. Pasteurization was achieved by applying 17 J/cm2 at 45 °C (PLMH45–3) and 6.12 J/cm2 at 47 °C (PLMH47–3) to a 3-mm juice layer with S. cerevisiae reductions of 5.10 ± 0.24 and 5.06 ± 0.08 log CFU/mL, respectively. Quality properties of PLMH47–3-pasteurized verjuice were monitored during 6 weeks of storage at refrigerated (5 °C) and room temperature (25 °C), The results were compared to those of untreated and thermally pasteurized (72 °C/18 s) samples. Untreated juice spoiled within 2 weeks at 25 °C. No growth was detected in other conditions for 6 weeks. Among quality characteristics, only optical properties changed slightly during storage. It was concluded that mild MH-assisted pulsed light treatments have potential for verjuice pasteurization compared to conventional thermal pasteurization due to the better preservation of its fresh-like characteristics.