Laser Cavitation Technology for Advanced Sustainable Liquid Food Processing: A Comprehensive Review on Equipment Design, Applications, and Challenges

ABSTRACT

The global market for nonthermal processed foods is rapidly expanding due to their superior nutritional value and sensory qualities. Novel nonthermal technologies, which extend the shelf life of liquid foods, are gaining significant global attention for their safety and environmental friendliness, leading to widespread acceptance among manufacturers and consumers. Laser cavitation (LC) is an emerging, sustainable, and novel nonthermal technology for advanced liquid food processing. Cavitation bubbles are generated by laser irradiation, which focuses a high‐intensity laser beam into a liquid, creating plasma and resulting in rapid bubble formation and collapse. This offers applications such as microbial reduction, bioactive compound extraction, emulsion improvement, and nutritional quality enhancement in liquid food. This review explores the mechanism of LC, its equipment design, configuration, and operation. In addition, it discusses the potential applications of laser‐induced cavitation in the food processing sector, along with its challenges. Existing cavitation‐based technologies, including acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation, have several limitations. Acoustic cavitation can cause protein denaturation at high temperatures, high collapse intensity of bubbles, and reduced efficiency over time. Hydrodynamic cavitation faces challenges such as equipment deterioration, a lack of directional sensitivity, and complex setup requirements. To overcome these limitations, LC technology is preferred for its greater precision and controlled energy delivery. The noncontact, focused distribution of the laser beam makes it a more compact and energy‐efficient option for processing liquid foods.