Radio frequency heating for high-quality processing of fluid and semi-fluid foods

Over the last decade, radio frequency (RF) treatment has been studied extensively in food processing, offering notable advantages over conventional heat treatments for different forms of food due to its non-contact, deep heat penetration, and rapid and volumetric heating characteristics. Although prior reviews have addressed RF processing for various food forms, such as disinfestation of food grains and pasteurization of food powder, most focused on solid or powdered foods. Currently, no systematic review exists on RF processing of fluid and semi-fluid food products.

In a new study published in the KeAi journal Food Physics, a team of researchers from China and the US discussed the applications of RF in processing fluid and semi-fluid food products, focusing on microbial inactivation, acceleration of biochemical reactions and extraction of compounds.

“Through this review, we found that most research focused on the area of batch processing – RF treatment was shown to have relatively faster heating rate and better treatment results,” shares lead author Hao Zhang.

The researchers also looked at heating uniformity and specialized devices for RF treatment of fluid and semi-fluid foods to obtain a good reference value for RF treatment of fluid and semi-fluid samples.

“Although RF heating has been widely used for fluid and semifluid food processing studies in recent years, much work remains to be done in this field to achieve large-scale application in the food industry,” adds Zhang. “We hope that the results of our review can provide specific research directions and references for future studies in this topic to improve the application of this technology.”

Contact author details: Bo Ling, Northwest A&F University, College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China, Email address: 6lb6lb@nwsuaf.edu.cn

Funder: This study was supported by of Key Research and Development Project in Shaanxi Province of China (2023-YBNY-150) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31901825). 

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

See the article: Hao Z.,et al., Radio frequency treatment in food processing: A review of its recent applications in fluid and semifluid foods. Food Physics, Volume 2, 2025, 100043, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodp.2024.100043.