Loss of nutrients during processing of baby foods should be minimized to maintain the
nutritional quality and therefore to support a satisfactory nutritional status in infants.
The present study aimed to evaluate the advantages of the ohmic heating versus
conventional retort sterilization on the maintenance of the amino acid content and
protein quality of sterilized vegetable baby foods. Results revealed that total protein
content was not affected after both sterilization methods. However, after retort
sterilization the content of total essential and non-essential amino acids significantly
decreased in 35% and 9%, respectively, thus decreasing the quality protein. Contrarily,
ohmic heating did not have effect on the total amino acid content and, therefore, this
alternative process did not modify the protein quality of the sample. In conclusion,
ohmic treatment may be successfully applied as an alternative method to conventional
sterilization to maintain the nutritional quality of protein in vegetable baby foods.