Sustainable emerging sonication processing: Impact on fungicide reduction and the overall quality characteristics of tomato juice

Sonication is an emerging sustainable and eco-friendly technology that has been broadly explored in food processing and preservation. Sonication has the edges of low energy consumption and high efficiency than conventional decontamination methods and would not pass on secondary pollutants. In the current research, we analyzed the impact of sonication on anilazine fungicide reduction, bioactive compound, antioxidant activity, colloidal stability, and enzymatic and microbial load of tomato juice. Sonicated treatments were carried out at 40 kHz, 480 W, 30 ± 2 °C for 0, 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40 min in an ultrasonic bath cleaner. The GC–MS outcomes revealed that the anilazine maximum reduction in tomato juice attained 80.52 % at 40 min of sonication. The anilazine concentration reduced significantly (p ≤ 0.05) with increased sonication time. In contrast, sonication treatments have acquired the highest TFC, TPC, ascorbic acid, carotenoids, lycopene, ABTS, and ORAC assay than the untreated sample. The Sonication process significantly improved (p ≤ 0.05) colloidal stability by reducing particle size distribution, apparent viscosity, and sedimentation index. Sonication prolonged tomato juice's shelf life by reducing the total viable count from 6.31 to 1.91 log CFU/mL. Polygalacturonase and pectin methyl esterase of the sonication sample at 40 min were inactivated by 44.32 % and 64.2 %, respectively. Considering this issue from a future perspective, sonication processing can be used industrially to enhance fruit juice's nutritional properties and shelf life and reduce pesticides and other organic residues.