Extending food quality, safety, and shelf-life could meet consumers' desires. Accordingly, numerous studies have focused on modern production techniques, such as emerging food processing technologies (Gavahian, 2022). Over the past two decades, the global food industry has witnessed a concentration on developing non-thermal food technology that has gained increasing interest and undergone significant advancements to determine its suitability for different types of food, its level of success, and the potential adverse effects. One of the most important criteria for the success and suitability of these techniques is their applicability to large quantities and industrial-scale facilities rather than being limited to research settings only (D'Incecco, Limbo, Hogenboom, & Pellegrino, 2021; Jadhav, Annapure, & Deshmukh, 2021; Zhang, Wang, Zeng, Han, & Brennan, 2019).

Reports from industrial growth centers in this field have indicated that in 2020, the market value of non-thermal pasteurization technologies reached $1.3 billion, and it is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.8% to reach $3.9 billion by 2026. These future projections have encouraged companies to enter the non-thermal processing field, accelerating research and development through innovative approaches that align with society's awareness of healthy and safe foods that retain quality and sensory attributes (Market Publisher Report, 2021).

Moderate electric field (MEF) is a non-thermal technique that applies alternating current, similar to ohmic heating, but without generating heat due to a controlled electrical field intensity (EFI) (Gavahian, Chu, & Sastry, 2018). Elevated electric fields may enhance the techno-functional qualities of milk proteins if managed at optimal conditions, which could result in favorable structural alterations (Nunes & Tavares, 2019). As an alternative to conventional thermal pasteurization (TP), electric fields could maintain nutritional value and keep the original organoleptic traits (Coolbear, Janin, Traill, & Shingleton, 2022). A previous report indicated that MEF at an EFI of 20.80 V/cm yielded milk with a longer shelf-life of fifteen days, compared to TP with a nine-day shelf-life (Al-Hilphy, Abdulstar, & Gavahian, 2021). At the same time, a typical MEF process may affect physicochemical properties, such as reducing milk pH (Ji, Sun, Sui, Qi, & Mao, 2022) or generating free radicals that could interact with proteins (Taha et al., 2022).

Our research team designed a new elongated electrodes-based moderate electric field (EEMEF) milk pasteurizer optimized based on milk's physical attributes (e.g., viscosity, density, and freezing point) as well as power usage, achieving >98% reduction in energy consumption compared to TP (Alsaedi, Al-Mousawi, Al-Hilphy, & Gavahian, 2023). Still, the effects of EEMF on the chemical properties of milk remained unexplored. To put this new system into practical application, it is necessary to comprehensively evaluate its impact on pasteurized milk chemical properties and storage stability.

The current study aims to optimize the processing variables to achieve a product with optimal chemical properties: moisture, protein, lactose, fat, pH, acidity, acid degree value (ADV), and peroxide value (PV). It also aims to investigate the impact of EEMEF on milk's sensory attributes and shelf-life compared to TP.