نبذة مختصرة : Pulsed electric field (PEF) has been studied as a means to inactivate microorganisms in liquid prepared foods to prolong shelf life and prevent food poisoning. PEF is thought to inactivate microbes by permeabilizing the cell membrane and has less adverse effects on nutritional quality and flavor of the food than traditional thermal pasteurization or sterilization methods. The goal of quarantine treatments are similar to the goal of food pasteurization in that any quarantined insects present in the commodity must be prevented from reproducing using techniques which are not significantly detrimental to the quality of the commodity. Traditional quarantine treatments include fumigation, heat, cold, and ionizing irradiation. PEF was applied to Mexican fruit fly, Anastrepha ludens (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae), eggs and feeding third instars. The treatment disintegrated some of the eggs. Percentage egg hatch was progressively reduced to a minimum of 2.9% as voltage was increased to a maximum of 9.2 kV/cm 2 delivered in ten 50 µs pulses. Nevertheless, no first instars treated as eggs with ≥5.0 kV (ten 50 µs pulses) survived to the third instar. PEF did not kill third instars immediately; however, they displayed a variety of pathological symptoms including sluggishness, elongated, larviform, and partial pupariation, and development of necrotic spots throughout the body. No third instars treated with >2.0 kV survived to the adult stage. Therefore, PEF has been shown to control insects, although considerable entomological and engineering work would be needed before a PEF-based treatment might become practical.
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