Shocked tomatoes better for you?

By 20. March 2012Blog, Health, Nutrition

Zapping tomatoes with pulsed electric fields increases concentrations of bioactive compounds (total polyphenols, lycopene, and vitamin C content). That is the message in the paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by researchers from the University of Barcelona, Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the University of Lleida, Spain.

Tomatoes were immersed in water, subjected to pulsed electric fields, and then stored for 24 hours at 4°C before testing. Total polyphenol content, hydrophilic antioxidant capacity and lipophilic antioxidant capacity were increased by 44%, 44% and 37% respectively using differing electric field strength and number of pulses.

The paper is available from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry website.