Aspects of high hydrostatic pressure food processing: Perspectives on technology and food safety

Abstract

The last two decades saw a steady increase of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) used for treatment of foods. Although the science of biomaterials exposed to high pressure started more than a century ago, there still seem to be a number of unanswered questions regarding safety of foods processed using HHP. This review gives an overview on historical development and fundamental aspects of HHP, as well as on potential risks associated with HHP food applications based on available literature. Beside the combination of pressure and temperature, as major factors impacting inactivation of vegetative bacterial cells, bacterial endospores, viruses, and parasites, factors, such as food matrix, water content, presence of dissolved substances, and pH value, also have significant influence on their inactivation by pressure. As a result, pressure treatment of foods should be considered for specific food groups and in accordance with their specific chemical and physical properties. The pressure necessary for inactivation of viruses is in many instances slightly lower than that for vegetative bacterial cells; however, data for food relevant human virus types are missing due to the lack of methods for determining their infectivity. Parasites can be inactivated by comparatively lower pressure than vegetative bacterial cells. The degrees to which chemical reactions progress under pressure treatments are different to those of conventional thermal processes, for example, HHP leads to lower amounts of acrylamide and furan. Additionally, the formation of new unknown or unexpected substances has not yet been observed. To date, no safety‐relevant chemical changes have been described for foods treated by HHP. Based on existing sensitization to non‐HHP‐treated food, the allergenic potential of HHP‐treated food is more likely to be equivalent to untreated food. Initial findings on changes in packaging materials under HHP have not yet been adequately supported by scientific data.

The future of functional food: Emerging technologies application on prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics

“…The most developed emerging nonthermal technology is high‐pressure processing (HPP), making it possible to move from the research environment into widespread industrial‐scale applications (Aganovic et al., 2021). This technology was initially invented in Japan and has been increasingly exploited by the food industry since the first commercial HPP processed product was developed in 1990 (Priyadarshini & Rajauria, 2019).…”

“…Moreover, the isostatic principle states that the pressure is transmitted instantaneously and uniformly throughout a sample, without pressure gradients, so that the size and geometry of the product are irrelevant. Usually, HPP used for food is carried out at 200–600 MPa at room temperature for short cycle times of less than 5 min (Aganovic et al., 2021).…”

Advances, Applications, and Comparison of Thermal (Pasteurization, Sterilization, and Aseptic Packaging) against Non-Thermal (Ultrasounds, UV Radiation, Ozonation, High Hydrostatic Pressure) Technologies in Food Processing

“…High-pressure processing (HPP) (also called as high pressure (HP) or high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) or ultra-high pressure (UHP)) is a novel, emerging, and promising non-thermal pasteurization technology, the use of which has steadily increased in food processing since the beginning of the twenty-first century [186][187][188]. In fact, the application of high-pressure technologies in the food industry is following an exponential growth over the last few years [189].…”

“…The most suitable foods to be processed with the HPP technique are those that have a satisfactory concentration in water and a lack of air gaps. Today, this technique has found wide application, mainly in fruits and vegetables, seafood and shellfish, dairy products, juices and beverages, ready-to-eat meals, and meat products [186]. This technique is unsuitable for the production of low acidity foods, as they require high pressures of 800-1700 MPa in order to inactivate their bacterial spores [193].…”

“…The application of pressure can be performed both directly and indirectly [199]. In direct application, a piston moves and causes a change in volume inside the pressure vessel, while in indirect application, the pressure setting in the container varies according to the amount of pressure fluid [186].…”