Chocolate milk drink processed by cold plasma technology: Physical characteristics, thermal behavior and microstructure

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of cold plasma processing parameters (time and flow rate) on the physical (rheological parameters and particle size), microstructure (optical microscopy) and thermal properties (differential scanning calorimetry) of chocolate milk drinks. The beverages treated by cold plasma presented particles with increased size and had higher consistency and altered melting profile (lower temperature and bound water and higher enthalpy) than the pasteurized product, suggesting denaturation processes and formation of protein aggregates. More severe conditions resulted in beverages with particles of larger surface areas ([D 3,2]) and volume diameters ([D4,3]), resulting in higher consistency. Intermediate processing conditions resulted in products with characteristics more similar to the pasteurized beverages. The results indicate that the beverages submitted to cold plasma and pasteurization have different physical characteristics, melting profile and microstructure. Chocolate milk drinks with different characteristics could be obtained varying the cold plasma process parameters.