Developing a radio frequency disinfestation technology for red jujubes with BaTiO3 as a filling material: Pest mortality, energy efficiency, and product quality

Abstract

The Indianmeal moth (Plodia interpunctella), characterized by its rapid infestation rate and short developmental cycle, poses a grave threat to red jujubes during the storage period thereby resulting in substantial economic losses. Previous study showed that incorporating BaTiO₃ (BT) in different volumes into food-grade silicone (FGS) for generating FGS/BT composite particles with diverse dielectric properties can significantly augment the heating uniformity of red jujubes during radio frequency (RF) treatment. This study adopted RF technology for disinfesting red jujubes, while evaluating effects of the filling materials and target temperatures on the disinfestation efficacy and product quality. Results indicated that the fifth-instar larvae of the Indianmeal moth were completely killed under the RF treatment with a target temperature of 52 °C and a holding time of 1 min. Meanwhile, the filling FGS/BT material significantly improved the utilization efficiency of RF energy, and effectively prevented the surface of red jujubes from charring, without significant impact on the product quality. These findings demonstrated the unique advantages of RF technology combined with filling materials for disinfesting red jujubes, providing the theoretical basis for further industrial applications.