PICon

PEF (pulsed electric fields) opens plant or microbial cells and, depending on the product, offers quality and process advantages, particularly in the French fry and potato chip industry. For efficient use, product-specific energy inputs must be determined; until now, this has been done through manual texture measurements (e.g., cutting force before and after PEF), which must be repeated regularly and are very labor-intensive. The project is therefore developing an inline process for quality control of PEF treatment in products such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and celery, which are subsequently cut. The evaluation is performed using acoustic signals during the cutting process, as PEF alters cutting behavior. The plan is to develop a modular device that can be integrated into various cutting systems and that records cutting sounds and analyzes them using AI. The initial goal is to reliably detect whether PEF treatment has been sufficient so that the process can be immediately adjusted in the event of deviations. In the long term, the treatment intensity will also be quantified to enable real-time adjustment and optimization of PEF parameters.