Abstract: As a high-efficiency non-thermal processing technology，pulsed electric fields (PEF) can be applied in drying，extraction，sterilization，and immersion procedures of food production． The influence of PEF pretreatment on the texture characteristics of kumquat from the perspective of physical properties (hardness，chewiness，elastic-ity，etc． ) was studied in this article． Moreover，the reasons resulting in the quality change of kumquat were dis-cussed． Experimental results show that the crystallinity of kumquat cellulose decreases and the distance between chains increases when the PEF treatment intensity is between 1. 0 to 2. 0 kV/cm，thus the structure become looser which leads to the decrease of hardness and chewiness． When the hemicellulose structure collapses，molecular chain become shorter，and hydrophilicity and swelling property are improved，resulting in better elasticity． The re-duction of molecular weight of pectin leads to the decrease of kumquat's hardness and adhesion． This study can pro-vide guidance for the improvement of immersion and maceration process in food industry．

Key words: pulsed electric fields, kumquat, texture, cellulose, hemicellulose