Abstract: The aims of this study were to study the inactivation kinetic model of Escherichia coli in orange juice by pulsed electric field （PEF） treatment. The lethal effects of various PEF processing parameters （electric field intensity， treatment time， initial temperature） were analyzed to evaluate the efficiency of PEF on the inactivation of Escherichia coli which was common in orange juice. The results from field emission scanning eleciron microscope （FESEM） imaging of Escherichia coli indicated that the PEF treatment induced the destruction of cell membrane structures. The inactivation kinetic model of Escherichia coli was obtained by fitting with Weibull model， and the model was validated by bias factor and accuracy factor. This research suggested that the Weibull model was suitable for predicting the survival ratio of Escherichia coli in orange juice treated by PEF.

Key words: pulsed electric field, Weibull model, Escherichia coli, inactivation kinetic model