Abstract:
Kiwifruit is rich in nutritional value but is difficult to preserve and prone to spoilage. Processing it into juice is an important approach to retaining its nutritional quality. Traditional thermal processing techniques can easily lead to flavor deterioration and nutrient loss, while non-thermal processing technologies provide a new pathway for producing high-quality kiwifruit juice. This review summarizes the basic principles of three non-thermal processing technologies—high pressure processing, ultrasound, and cold plasma—and systematically compared their effects on microbial control, color, texture, and nutritional components during kiwifruit juice processing. All three technologies can effectively sterilize or inhibit microbial growth. In terms of color, high pressure processing and cold plasma treatments exhibits better color preservation, although excessive cold plasma treatment is found to potentially accelerate browning, while ultrasound treatment tends to induce browning during storage. Regarding texture, ultrasound treatment is shown to enhance the apparent viscosity and stability of the juice, cold plasma treatment reduced viscosity but improved stability, and high pressure processing treatment demonstrated a trend of initially increasing and then decreasing viscosity. In terms of nutrient retention, cold plasma treatment resulted in the lowest loss rate of vitamin C, whereas ultrasound treatment led to the highest loss rate. Both technologies are also observed to cause sucrose degradation, while changes in phenolic compounds depended on treatment intensity, duration, and the specific type of compound. Furthermore, this study explore the potential regulatory effects of these three technologies on kiwifruit juice allergenicity. Given that each individual non-thermal processing technology possesses distinct advantages and limitations, future research should focus on developing synergistic application models integrating multiple techniques. Establishing a comprehensive non-thermal processing system will overcome the application bottlenecks of single technologies and further advance the adoption of non-thermal techniques in the kiwifruit processing industry.