Article Viability of sous vide, microwave and high pressure processing techniques on quality changes during shelf life of fresh cowpea puree Ta ˆmmila Venzke Klug 1 , Elena Collado 2 , Ascensio ´n Martı ´nez-Sa ´nchez 1,2 , Perla A Go ´mez 2 , Encarna Aguayo 1,2 , Francisco Arte ´s 1,2 and Francisco Arte ´s-Herna ´ndez 1,2 Abstract An innovative cowpea puree containing 78.8% of fresh cowpea seeds was developed. Microwave treatment (8 kW/35 s), high hydrostatic pressure (550 MPa/10 min/23  C) or sous vide treatment (80  C, 3 min) were assayed as processing techniques. Blended fresh cowpea samples were used as control. Quality changes during 21 days at 5  C were studied. Sous vide samples showed a relevant loss during storage of viscoelastic parameters, like elastic modulus (G 0 ) and viscous modulus (G 00 ), which was also perceived in the sensory evaluation. On the contrary, high hydrostatic pressure and microwave treatments were able to preserve consistency, texture and taste. However, physicochemical properties, mainly colour, were greatly influenced by thermal treatments, although high hydrostatic pressure treatment preserved greenness. Total phenolic content and total antioxidant capacity were more affected by high hydrostatic pressure than by microwave treatments. In conclusion, microwave and high hydrostatic pressure processing treatments seem to be quite interesting techniques to develop legume-based products. Keywords Vigna unguiculata L. Walp, non-thermal processing, mild thermal processing, antioxidant capacity, viscosity, colour Date received: 17 June 2019; accepted: 25 March 2020 INTRODUCTION Legumes are a great source of proteins, fibre, carbohy- drates, vitamins and minerals and bioactive com- pounds. In this sense, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) is reported to be an important source of pro- teins, vitamins (folic acid and vitamin B) and minerals (iron and zinc) (Gonc¸alves et al., 2016). Furthermore, cowpea starch is beneficial for health, since its digestion is slower than that of cereal starch, which results in a better plasma glucose upon ingestion changes control (Gonc¸ alves et al., 2016). Cowpea consumption has been associated to prevention of diverse metabolic diseases and carcinogenic pathologies (Xu and Chang, 2012). Among landraces, a Spanish cowpea landrace (BGE038474) has been previously studied and charac- terized for its agronomic and nutritional parameters 1 Postharvest and Refrigeration Group, Department of Agronomical Engineering, Universidad Polite ´cnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain 2 Institute of Plant Biotechnology, Universidad Polite ´cnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain Corresponding author: Francisco Arte ´s-Herna ´ndez, Universidad Polite ´cnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 48 Cartagena 30203, Spain. Email: fr.artes-hdez@upct.es Food Science and Technology International 0(0) 1–9 ! The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1082013220921059 journals.sagepub.com/home/fst