BASICALLY, MICROMODELS ARE DEVICES SIMULATING A POROUS NETWORK AND ARE USEFUL TOOLS FOR STUDYING THE TRANSPORT MECHANISMS THAT GOVERN THE DRYING PROCESSES OF PORE STRUCTURES SUCH AS IN FOOD. 2D MICROMODELS HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN FABRICATED WITH GLASS AND RESIN AND HAVE BEEN VERY EFFECTIVE INSTRUMENTS TO OBSERVE AND QUANTIFY LIQUID DISTRIBUTION AND TRANSPORT MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN PROCESSES SUCH AS DRYING. SINCE THEY ARE BUILT WITH RIGID MATERIALS, PHENOMENA SUCH AS SHRINKAGE AND MATRIX DEFORMATION CAN ONLY BE INDIRECTLY STUDIED. A NEW METHOD BASED ON THE TRADITIONAL PHOTOLITHOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO FABRICATE DEFORMABLE MICROMODELS. THIS TECHNIQUE USES AN ELASTOMERIC MATERIAL CALLED POLYDIMETHYLSILOXANE (PDMS). THIS STUDY DESCRIBES THE FABRICATION PROTOCOL FOR FABRICATING 3D DEFORMABLE TRANSPARENT PDMS MICROMODELS WITH A LOG-NORMAL PORE SIZE DISTRIBUTION AND PORE VALUES RANGING BETWEEN 160 AND 500 ?M (? = 200 ?M AND ? = 60 ?M). THIS STUDY PROVIDES PRELIMINARY RESULTS INVOLVING DRYING CURVES AND SHRINKAGE. PDMS MICROMODELS ARE A USEFUL TOOL TO DETERMINE THE LIQUID TRANSPORT MECHANISM INVOLVED IN DRYING AND IMPREGNATION IN POROUS STRUCTURES THAT SIMULATE A FOOD MATRIX.

A MATHEMATICAL MODEL WAS DEVELOPED TO DESCRIBE MASS TRANSPORT IN POLYMERIC FILMS BASED ON MODIFICATIONS OF FICK?S LAW IN A CONTINUOUS MACROSCOPIC APPROACH. THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK WAS SPECIFICALLY TO MODEL THE TRANSPORT OF WATER VAPOR AND OXYGEN IN POLYMERIC FILMS AT THE PORE LEVEL, BASED ON PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONDENSATION PRO CESS AND THE MORPHOLOGY AND CONNECTIVITY OF THE POROUS MEDIUM, WITH TWO-DIMENSIONAL PORE NETWORKS REPRESENTING PORE SPACES. USING A PORE SCALE DISCRETE MODEL, WE FOUND THAT THE PORE-LEVEL DISTRIBUTIONS OF LIQUID (CONDENSATE) AND VAPOR AS TRANSPORT PHENOM ENA OCCURRED. THE VAPOR AND OXYGEN DIFFUSIVITIES RANGED FROM 4.22×10-6 TO 3.16×10-7 CM2/S AND FROM 3.66×10-6 TO 2.86×10-7 CM2/S, RESPECTIVELY. ALSO, THE VAPOR AND OXYGEN PERMEABILITIES RANGED FROM 2.61×10-3 TO 3.83×10-4 ND (1ND=10-21M2) AND FROM 6.77×10-3 TO 1.35×10-3 ND, RESPECTIVELY. THE TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OBTAINED BY THE MODEL WERE COMPARED WITH THE CORRESPONDING RESULTS FOR CHITOSAN FILMS OBTAINED IN PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES, SHOWING A PARTIAL AGREEMENT.

IN THIS STUDY, WE AIMED TO DESCRIBE A MODERN, EFFICIENT, AND REPRODUCIBLE METHODOLOGY TO OPTIMIZE RESPIRATION RATE PARAMETERS COUPLED WITH TRANSPORT PROPERTIES IN MASS BALANCES DESCRIBING MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING (MAP) SYSTEMS. WE CONSIDERED MASS BALANCES FOR THREE DIFFERENT RESPIRATION RATE J FILM (EXPONENTIAL, COMPETITIVE AND UNCOMPETITIVE MICHAELIS?MENTEN KINETICS) COUPLED WITH TRANSPORT PROPERTIES FOR TWO DIFFERENT PACKAGING FILMS. EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED TO VALIDATE THE METHODOLOGY USING GRAPES PLACED IN A POLYPROPYLENE CONTAINER OPENED ON THE TOP AND SEALED WITH PACKAGING FILMS. THE METHODOLOGY RELIES ON A NUMERICAL OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURE CALLED THE TRUST-REGION-REFLECTIVE ALGORITHM. WE DETERMINED THE PREDICTIVE CAPABILITY OF MODELS USING GOODNESS-OF-FIT CRITERIA AND ASSESSED PARAMETER UNCERTAINTY THROUGH STANDARD ERRORS. WE ALSO CALCULATED THE FIRST-ORDER OPTIMALITY MEASURE AND THE RELATIVE CHANGE IN THE SUM OF SQUARES TO VERIFY THE CONVERGENCE OF THE IMPLEMENTED ALGORITHM. RESULTS SHOWED THAT THE RESPIRATION RATE PARAMETERS OBTAINED WITH THIS METHODOLOGY FOR THE EXPONENTIAL MODEL PROVIDED A BETTER FIT THAN FOR THE OTHER TWO MODELS. THE FITTING FOR THE KINETIC MODELS IS NOT VERY SUITABLE SINCE WE FOUND THAT THE NORMALIZED STANDARD ERRORS WERE RATHER HIGH. IN CONCLUSION, THE METHODOLOGY IS ROBUST, AND WE EXPECT THAT IT SERVES AS A TOOL FOR ASSESSING MAP TECHNOLOGY DESIGN.

THE AIM OF THIS PAPER WAS TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF A CONVECTIVE CONTINUUM INDUSTRIAL DRYING PROCESS ON MICROSTRUCTURAL CHANGES, BULK DENSITY, AND TOTAL SOLUBLE SOLIDS OF APPLE SLICES (INNER AND SURFACE) AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH DRYING MECHANISMS. EXPERIMENTS WERE CARRIED OUT WITH A CONVEYOR DRYER (PROCTOR & SCHWARTZ, MODEL K97058) THAT INCLUDES THREE CONTINUUM STAGES (A, B, AND C). APPLE SAMPLES (GRANNY SMITH) WERE TAKEN IN ACCORDANCE WITH DRYING EQUIPMENT FEASIBILITY; RAW MATERIALS WERE OBTAINED AT DRYER INPUT, PARTIALLY DRIED APPLE SAMPLES BETWEEN STAGES A AND B AND BETWEEN STAGES B AND C, AND DRIED APPLE SAMPLES WERE OBTAINED AT DRYER OUTPUT. MOISTURE CONTENT AND BULK DENSITY WERE DETERMINED FOR ALL APPLE SAMPLES, AND TOTAL SOLUBLE SOLIDS CONTENT OF WHOLE APPLE SAMPLES AND THEIR EXTERNAL SURFACE WERE DETERMINED. SOME APPLE SAMPLES WERE RAPIDLY FROZEN (?195.8?°C) FOR OBSERVATION BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM). RESULTS SHOWED THE PRESENCE OF TWO POSSIBLE DRYING MECHANISMS: EVAPORATION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DRYING PROCESS (STAGE A) AND LIQUID WATER TRANSPORT IN STAGES B AND C. A REMARKABLE DIFFERENCE IN THE TOTAL SOLUBLE SOLIDS CONTENT AND MICROSTRUCTURE BETWEEN EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ZONES OF APPLE SAMPLES WAS EXPERIMENTALLY DETERMINED. MORE STUDIES AT INDUSTRIAL SCALE ARE NEEDED TO IMPROVE THE FINAL QUALITY OF DRIED PRODUCTS.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES CONTINUE METABOLIC PROCESSES AFTER BEING HARVESTED. IN SOME PRODUCE, MAINLY CLIMACTERIC FRUITS, THESE PROCESSES CAUSE DETERIORATION OF THE PRODUCE DURING STORAGE. TO REDUCE THE DETERIORATION RATE, SEVERAL STRATEGIES HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED FOR POSTHARVEST HANDLING. ONE OF THESE PRESERVATION STRATEGIES IS MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING (MAP). IN THIS TECHNOLOGY, THE RESPIRATION RATE OF THE PRODUCE AND THE GAS PERMEABILITY OF THE STORAGE FILM ARE THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL KINETIC PROCESSES ACCOUNTED FOR IN DESIGNING THE PACKAGING SYSTEM. TO UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP OF THESE TWO KINETIC PROCESSES DURING PACKAGING IN MODIFIED ATMOSPHERES, TWO MAJOR TECHNIQUES HAVE BEEN PRESENTED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF MATHEMATICAL MODELING: THE CLASSIC RESPIRATION RATE MODELS AND THE REACTION-DIFFUSION MODEL. IN THE CLASSIC MODEL OF RESPIRATION RATE, FOUR TYPES OF BLACK BOX MODEL APPROACHES HAVE BEEN PROPOSED: LINEAR, POLYNOMIAL, EXPONENTIAL, AND THE MICHAELIS?MENTEN KINETIC MODELS. FOR THE LAST BLACK BOX MODEL, FOUR TYPES OF INHIBITION APPROACHES ARE CONSIDERED: COMPETITIVE, UNCOMPETITIVE, NONCOMPETITIVE, AND, FINALLY, A COMBINATION OF COMPETITIVE AND UNCOMPETITIVE INHIBITION. IN THE REACTION-DIFFUSION MODEL, IT HAS BEEN CONSIDERED THAT THE TRANSPORT OF A SPECIES IN MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING (MASS TRANSPORT IN THE HEADSPACE AND THE FILM USED AS PACKAGING) OBEYS STRICTLY DIFFUSIVE TRANSPORT MODELS. FOR THIS REASON, THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS REVIEW IS TO SHOW THE ADVANCES IN THE TWO MAJOR TECHNIQUES (CLASSIC RESPIRATION RATE MODELS AND THE REACTION-DIFFUSION MODEL) IMPLEMENTED TO DESCRIBE THE MAP OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES, AS DESCRIBED IN SPECIALIZED LITERATURE.

MICROSCOPIC VISUALIZATION, ESPECIALLY IN TRANSPARENT MICRO MODELS, CAN PROVIDE VALUABLE INFORMATION TO UNDERSTAND THE TRANSPORT PHENOMENA AT PORE SCALE IN DIFFERENT PROCESS OCCURRING IN POROUS MATERIALS (FOOD, TIMBER, SOILS, ETC.). MICRO MODELS STUDIES FOCUS MAINLY ON THE OBSERVATION OF MULTI-PHASE FLOW, WHICH PRESENTS A GREATER PROXIMITY TO REALITY. THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO STUDY THE PROCESS OF FLEXOGRAPHY AND ITS APPLICATION IN THE MANUFACTURE OF POLYESTER RESIN TRANSPARENT MICRO MODELS AND ITS APPLICATION TO CARROTS. MATERIALS USED TO IMPLEMENT A FLEXO STATION FOR MICRO MODELS CONSTRUCTION WERE THERMO REGULATED WATER BATH, EXPOSURE CHAMBER TO UV LIGHT, PHOTOSENSITIVE SUBSTANCE (PHOTOPOLYMER), RTV SILICONE POLYESTER RESIN, AND GLASS PLATES. IN THIS PAPER, DATA ON SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF A PARTICULAR KIND OF CARROT WE USED, AND A TRANSPARENT MICRO MODEL WITH SQUARE CROSS-SECTION AS WELL AS A LOG-NORMAL PORE SIZE DISTRIBUTION WITH PORE RADII RANGING FROM 10 TO 110 ?M (AVERAGE OF 22 ?M AND MICRO MODEL SIZE OF 10 × 10 CM) WERE BUILT. FINALLY, IT STRESSES THAT IT HAS SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED THE PROTOCOL PROCESSING 2D POLYESTER RESIN TRANSPARENT MICRO MODELS.

FORMULATING WOOD DRYING MODELS WITH PREDICTIVE CAPABILITIES IS STILL A CHALLENGE. TRADITIONALLY, THE WOOD DRYING PROCESS IS STUDIED MACROSCOPICALLY, WITH PORE-LEVEL PHYSICS LUMPED INTO EFFECTIVE TRANSPORT PROPERTIES. HOWEVER, MICROVISUAL EXPERIMENTS IN 2-D TRANSPARENT POROUS MEDIA (KNOWN AS MICROMODELS) CAN IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE DRYING PROCESS AND ADD TO CURRENT THEORIES. HERE, WE MAKE ETCHED GLASS MICROMODELS WITH THE PORE MORPHOLOGY OF SOFTWOODS AND CARRY OUT SIMPLE DRYING EXPERIMENTS, THEREBY PROVING THE POTENTIAL OF THIS EXPERIMENTAL TOOL ON THE WOOD SCIENCE FIELD. WE DEVELOP A PROCEDURE TO GENERATE THE RANDOM MORPHOLOGY OF SOFTWOOD WITH A COMPUTER PROGRAM BASED ON KNOWN PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION LAWS. IN PARTICULAR, WE GENERATE THE TRACHEID CELL MICROFEATURES OF A SOFTWOOD LONGITUDINAL-TANGENTIAL SECTION. THE WOOD MORPHOLOGY IS ETCHED ONTO GLASS USING A PHOTOLITHOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE, CREATING SOFTWOOD GLASS MICROMODELS. GOOD AGREEMENT IS SEEN BETWEEN THE MORPHOLOGY OF MICROTOME SECTIONS AND OUR COMPUTER-GENERATED SOFTWOOD. DURING WOOD DRYING, LIQUID FLOW IS DRIVEN BY CAPILLARY INSTABILITIES. SUDDEN LIQUID REDISTRIBUTION, KNOW AS A HAINES JUMP, SPONTANEOUSLY DRAINS THE LIQUID CONTAINED IN CELL CAVITIES. VISCOUS FLOW OCCURS MAINLY THROUGH LIQUID FILMS IN PARTIALLY DRY CELLS.

THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DEVELOP A MATHEMATICAL PROTOCOL (MP) TO GRAPHICALLY ANALYZE THE IRREVERSIBLE CHANGES INDUCED BY HIGH PRESSURE TREATMENT IN FISH MUSCLE PROTEIN. THE MP WAS VALIDATED BY THERMAL ANALYSIS DATA (DSC) FROM PRESSURIZED SAMPLES OF SERIOLELLA VIOLACEA MUSCLE TISSUE BETWEEN 200 AND 500 MPA FOR 2 S TO 10 MIN. THE MP INCLUDED METHODOLOGIES TO OBTAIN THE THERMODYNAMIC PARAMETERS OF PROTEIN DENATURATION AND BUILDING 3-D PLOTS FROM REPRESENTATIVE THERMOGRAMS. RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MP SHOWED THAT THE PRESSURIZATION OF MUSCLE TISSUE PROVOKED THAT THE TOTAL DENATURATION ENTHALPIES VALUES DIMINISHED, THESE CHANGES WERE MORE EVIDENT FOR TREATMENTS >450 MPA. THE IRREVERSIBLE DENATURATION OF ACTIN IN THE PRESSURIZED SAMPLES WAS OBSERVED FOR ANY TREATMENT CONDITION >300 MPA AND GREATER THAN 3 MIN. THE PROPOSED MP IS A POWERFUL TOOL TO IMPROVE DATA ANALYSIS FROM DSC WHEN MUSCLE TISSUE SAMPLES ARE SUBJECTED TO PRESSURIZATION.

DRYING OF POROUS MATERIALS IS IMPORTANT IN THE PROCESSING INDUSTRY, MAINLY IN FOOD MANUFACTURING. THE CLASSICAL DRYING THEORY HAS BEEN WIDELY STUDIED (BARBOSA-CÁNOVAS AND VEGA-MERCADO, 1996). THIS APPROACH IS BASED ON EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF THE EFFECTIVE DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS AS A FUNCTION OF WATER SATURATION. A DIFFERENT APPROACH IS BASED ON THE STUDY OF DRYING MECHANISMS AT PORE LEVEL (SEGURA AND TOLEDO, 2005A; SEGURA AND TOLEDO, 2005B; LAURINDO AND PRAT, 1998).

PROXIMAL COMPOSITION, ZINC (ZN), CALCIUM (CA), AND IRON (FE) CONTENTS, SHRINKAGE PERCENTAGE, WATER ABSORPTION CAPACITY, REHYDRATION CAPACITY, HARDNESS, AND SPRINGINESS OF FRESH AND DRIED CHILEAN SEA CUCUMBER (ATHYONIDIUM CHILENSIS) WERE EVALUATED IN THREE SEASONS. SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES (P ? 0.05) WERE FOUND IN MOISTURE, PROTEIN, AND ASH CONTENTS IN SPRING AND SUMMER; HOWEVER, FAT CONTENT WAS NOT SIGNIFICANT. THE FE AND CA CONTENTS WERE HIGH IN SPRING, WHILE ZN WAS HIGH IN AUTUMN. PRODUCTS OBTAINED IN SPRING EXHIBITED A HIGHER QUALITY INDEX ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER SHRINKAGE, HIGHER REHYDRATION CAPACITY, AND WATER ABSORPTION CAPACITY AS WELL AS LOWER HARDNESS AND HIGHER SPRINGINESS.

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO APPLY ELECTROHYDRODYNAMIC (EHD) AS A PRETREATMENT, INCLUDING SEVERAL VOLTAGES AND AN APPLICATION TIME OF LESS THAN 1 H, COMBINED WITH FREEZE DRYING (FD) TO DETERMINE THEIR INFLUENCE ON DRYING KINETICS AND DRYING RATE, FINAL MOISTURE CONTENT, REHYDRATION RATE, AND WATER ABSORPTION CAPACITY, ALSO, REHYDRATION AND WATER ABSORPTION CAPACITY RATES DERIVED FROM THE WEIBULL MODEL. THE BEST COMBINATION WAS COMPARED WITH SUN DRYING (SD) AND FD. INITIAL DRYING RATE INCREASED BECAUSE EHD INFLUENCED THE MOISTURE CONTENT ON THE PRODUCT SURFACE AS EXPOSURE VOLTAGE INCREASED. REHYDRATION AND WATER ABSORPTION HAD A HETEROGENEOUS BEHAVIOR, REGARDLESS OF VOLTAGE. THE 30 KV-30 MIN PRETREATMENT HAD BETTER DRYING KINETICS AND RATE AND WAS THEREFORE COMPARED WITH FD AND SD, SHOWING BETTER RESULTS IN THE DRYING PARAMETERS. HOWEVER, FOR REHYDRATION BEFORE 2.5 H, FD BEHAVED BETTER. THE WEIBULL MODEL HAD A GOOD FIT TO THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA FOR THE THREE TREATMENTS. CRUST FORMATION WAS GREATER IN THE SD TREATMENT, FOLLOWED BY EHD COMBINED WITH FD, WHICH WAS REFLECTED IN REHYDRATION.

VACUUM FREEZE-DRYING PROVIDES HIGH-QUALITY FOOD PRODUCTS. HOWEVER, IT REQUIRES LONG OPERATING TIMES AND HIGH ENERGY CONSUMPTION. HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE (HVED) IS AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD ENHANCE FREEZE-DRYING RATES AND FINAL PRODUCT QUALITY. THIS STUDY AIMED TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF HVED AT HIGH FREQUENCY (200 KHZ) ON FREEZE-DRYING KINETICS OF BLUEBERRIES (EFFECTIVE MOISTURE DIFFUSIVITY, DRYING TIMES) AND THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE RESULTING FREEZE-DRIED FRUITS. BLUEBERRIES WERE PRETREATED AT DIFFERENT ELECTRIC FIELD STRENGTHS (10, 20, AND 30 KV/CM) AND OPERATIONAL TIMES (10, 20, AND 30 S) AND FREEZE-DRIED UNTIL CONSTANT WEIGHT. THE HVED TREATMENT AT 30 KV/CM AND 30 S EXHIBITED THE BEST MOISTURE DIFFUSIVITY VALUES AND REDUCED DRYING TIME BY AT LEAST 30% COMPARED WITH UNTREATED SAMPLES. SAMPLES TREATED WITH HVED AND FREEZE-DRIED PRESERVED THEIR SHAPE AND PREVENTED SHRINKAGE. APPLYING HVED AS A PRETREATMENT ELECTROTECHNOLOGY CAN HELP IMPROVE THE EF- FICIENCY OF FREEZE-DRYING AND THE QUALITY OF DRIED FOOD PRODUCTS.

THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF LOW-PRESSURE COLD PLASMA (LPCP) ON THE INACTIVATION OF ESCHERICHIA COLI AND LISTERIA INNOCUA ON FRESH-CUT APPLE SKIN AND ITS INFLUENCE ON WETTABILITY. COLD PLASMA TREATMENTS HAVE SHOWN TO BE EFFECTIVE TO DECONTAMINATE FOODS, BUT THEIR EFFECT ON THE WETTABILITY HAS NOT BEEN WELL STUDIED. SURFACE-INOCULATED APPLE SAMPLES WERE TREATED WITH ARGON (AR), NITROGEN (N2), OXYGEN (O2), AND ARGON-OXYGEN (AR-O2) COLD PLASMA USING A COMMERCIAL LPCP UNIT. THREE DIFFERENT MODELS WERE USED TO FIT BACTERIAL SURVIVAL CURVES AFTER THE LPCP TREATMENTS. CHANGES IN SURFACE WETTABILITY WERE ALSO DETERMINED BY MEASURING THE CONTACT ANGLE. THE LPCP TREATMENTS USING AR, O2, OR AR-O2 MIXTURE FOR 20 MIN WERE THE MOST EFFECTIVE TO INACTIVATE E. COLI WITH O2, WHILE THE LPCP TREATMENT WITH N2 FOR 20 MIN REDUCED L. INNOCUA THE MOST FOR (P?

SULFORAPHANE (SFN) IS AN ISOTHIOCYANATE OCCURRING IN BROCCOLI, WITH EXCEPTIONAL HEALTH-BENEFICIAL PROPERTIES, SUCH AS ANTICANCER, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY, AND ANTI-HYPERTENSIVE EFFECTS. PROCESSES TO MAXIMIZE SFN CONTENT IN BROCCOLI DEVELOPED UNTIL NOW ARE EXPENSIVE AND SFN BIOAVAILABILITY IN THE VEGETABLE IS NOT OPTIMAL. TO INCREASE SFN EXTRACTION YIELD FROM BROCCOLI FLORETS, IT WAS PROPOSED TO COMPLEMENT TRADITIONAL SOLVENT EXTRACTION WITH PULSED ELECTRIC FIELD (PEF) AS TISSUE DISRUPTION METHOD ENABLING THE REDUCTION OF MASS TRANSFER RESISTANCE IN VEGETABLE MATRICES. TISSUE DISRUPTION METHODS ENHANCE THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS PROCESS BECAUSE IT REDUCES MASS TRANSFER RESISTANCE. PEF IS AN INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY RECENTLY INTRODUCED IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY. WE STUDIED THE EFFECT OF ELECTRIC FIELD STRENGTH (10 AND 15?KV/CM) AND TIME OF EXPOSURE TO THE PEF TREATMENT (30, 90, AND 150?S) ON THE RECOVERY OF SFN FROM BROCCOLI FLORETS, USING A STATISTICAL FACTORIAL DESIGN. ELECTRIC FIELD STRENGTH AND EXPOSURE TIME SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECTED SFN RECOVERY IN A POSITIVE WAY. PEFS INCREASE SFN RECOVERY BY MORE THAN 50% COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL EXTRACTION. THIS RESULT WAS ACHIEVED AT 150?S EXPOSURE TO PEF AND 10 KV/CM.