Humans have relied on heat for centuries to process food, which began when our ancestors discovered the art of cooking with fire. Through experimentation, they learned to use fire effectively to improve the taste, texture, and nutritional value of food while also making it safer to consume. Anthropologists agree that heat-based food processing was pivotal in shaping humanity's physiology, intellect, society, and economy. From the late 1800s onwards, there was a shift in emphasis from traditional household cooking to industrialized methods. Initially, the primary concern was preserving food, but later, during the 1920s and 1930s, the focus shifted towards ensuring safety regarding microbial contamination. After the Second World War, there was an increasing focus on addressing quality concerns, particularly nutritional aspects (Knorr & Watzke, 2019). In the present times, it is essential to consider that the shelf-life and safety of processed food are enhanced, and nutritional content remains unaffected by the adverse effects of processing conditions such as high temperature and longer processing times (Pandita et al., 2024; Wang & Teplitski, 2023). Traditional food processing methods like sterilization, dehydration, pasteurization, and evaporation effectively extend shelf-life and ensure product safety by inactivating microorganisms up to an extent. However, these techniques also degrade heat-sensitive vitamins and other bioactive compounds (Azizi-Lalabadi et al., 2023). There has been a rising consumer demand for ready-to-eat healthy foods with ‘fresh-like’ quality characteristics. These demands are hard to achieve with traditionally used thermal processing technologies.

Therefore, in recent years, extensive research has been conducted on the development and application of non-thermal technologies such as pulsed electric fields (PEF), UV light, ultrasound (US), and high hydrostatic pressure (HPP). These green and sustainable processes emphasize food preservation without changing foods' organoleptic and nutritional characteristics (Zhang et al., 2019). Moreover, these technologies provide additional benefits, such as the utilization of lower processing temperatures and efficient energy use. Of the various technologies studied over the past many years, PEF stands out as one of the most attractive technologies due to its short treatment time and reduced thermal impacts. It has gained significant attention from researchers due to its promising potential as a future food processing method (Arshad et al., 2020). It works on the principle of application of short, high-voltage electric field pulses at strengths ranging from 5 to 50 kV/cm to food for achieving desired outcomes such as microbial inactivation or modification of food structure (Tomasevic et al., 2023). These pulses are administered to food items positioned between or traversing two electrodes within the chamber (Nowosad et al., 2021). Extensive research has been conducted on PEF, and it has demonstrated success in a wide range of applications, including liquid pasteurization, juice extraction, deactivation of enzymes, extraction of bioactive compounds, processing of meat and seafood, seed treatment, and aiding in freezing and dehydration processes. (Syed et al., 2017). Earlier, the research on the utilization of PEF was primarily focused on solid foods, with relatively minimal exploration of its application, especially in the context of meat. However, it is recognized that meat stands out as one of the most promising areas for the widespread industrial application of PEF (Tomasevic et al., 2023). When PEF is applied to meat, it has been observed to enhance the movement of substances during the drying and brining processes. For example, PEF has proven to be effective in improving meat brining as it increases the permeability of the cell membrane through electroporation through the external electric field (Guo et al., 2024). Additionally, PEF treatment results in improved water retention during cooking, attributed to enhanced microdiffusion of brine and water-binding agents (Gudmundsson & Hafsteinsson, 2001).

Extensive research has explored the use of PEF for meat tenderization (Bekhit et al., 2016; Bolumar et al., 2022; Faridnia et al., 2016; Jeong et al., 2023; Karki et al., 2023; Suwandy et al., 2015b). Other studies have demonstrated additional benefits, such as a 16.61 % improvement in the water retention ability of chicken breast meat and a 28.93 % reduction in cooking-related losses (Wang, Li, et al., 2022). Additionally, studies have shown significant improvements in marination (Zhang, Wang, et al., 2022). Since the fundamental applications of PEF in meat and fish have recently undergone reviews (Bhat, Morton, Mason, & Bekhit, 2019; Gómez et al., 2019), this paper will focus on the present state of understanding, most recent research discoveries, potential future applications, consumer acceptance, and industry challenges in the context of PEF utilization in the processing of all three categories: meat, poultry, and seafood. Throughout this paper, when we refer to seafood, we encompass marine-derived food and fish found in freshwater and saltwater environments. Furthermore, our comprehensive approach encompasses traditional methods of processing meat, poultry, and seafood, the fundamental principles of PEF, considerations of sustainability and safety, and identifying shortcomings in meeting industrial requirements and proposing potential solutions to bridge these gaps.