Electric field-based food processing technologies have recently caught the attention of food industry that wishes to fulfill consumers' demands for high-quality and safety of food products. Numerous research groups have recently demonstrated the possibility to inactivate different microorganisms in various buffer test systems and food products using electric field-based processing methods. In this work, the critical process parameters and the characteristics of food products that determine microbial inactivation kinetics are analyzed. Suggested analytical models are based on the dimensionless analysis of major process variables and physical properties of food products. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.