Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC) Technology in Food Preservation: Fundamental and Industrial Applications

Abstract

Alternative to conventional processes, many innovative techniques have been studied to preserve the nutritional quality and to protect food from deterioration. This chapter represents the principles and the applications of the instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) process in food drying and decontamination. This process is considered as a highly appropriate HTST-type treatment induced by subjecting the material to saturated steam, during a short time, followed by an instant pressure drop leading to auto evaporation of water, product texturing, and cooling. This effect results in improved drying of foods and in killing of the vegetative bacteria and/or spores with no impact on thermosensitive molecules or on the product quality. A wide range of foods and pharmaceutical products were effectively treated by DIC technology at both laboratory and industrial scales.

Peanut Allergy: Characteristics and Approaches for Mitigation

“…Another novel technique called instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) provides a wide range of processing application to food materials and its modifications. DIC technique consists of a short heating step of 10‐60 s followed by steam injection under high pressure (up to 1 MPa) to the products kept under vacuum, followed by an abrupt pressure drop creating a vacuum (Hamoud‐Agha & Allag, ). The working mechanism is based on heating and mechanical stress where the initial vacuum allows constant heating rapidly and the instant pressure drop causes significant mechanical stress.…”

Instant Controlled Pressure Drop as a Strategy To Modify Extractable and Non-extractable Phenolic Compounds: A Study in Different Grape Pomace Materials

“…It is a technology distinguished by its ability to transform a wide range of solid food products. In this high-temperature–short-time (HTST) process, the material is subjected to saturated steam for a short time, followed by an abrupt pressure drop toward vacuum, leading to the self-vaporization of water, cooling, and expansion of the material . DIC has been used as a strategy to preserve antioxidant capacity from extractable polyphenols in fruits and vegetables, , as a previous step to increase the extraction of compounds, as well as to modify food texture .…”

“…In this high-temperature−short-time (HTST) process, the material is subjected to saturated steam for a short time, followed by an abrupt pressure drop toward vacuum, leading to the self-vaporization of water, cooling, and expansion of the material. 7 DIC has been used as a strategy to preserve antioxidant capacity from extractable polyphenols in fruits and vegetables, 8,9 as a previous step to increase the extraction of compounds, 10 as well as to modify food texture. 11 Nevertheless, most studies with DIC and polyphenols did not explore a relative advantage of this technology; in contrast to other procedures, such as pressurized hot-water extraction or ultrasound-assisted extraction, where a supernatant is selected and a residue is discarded, DIC keeps the original solid material.…”

A Preliminary Study on the Effect of the Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Technology (DIC) on Drying and Rehydration Kinetics of Maize Kernels (Zea mays L.)

“…It is suggested to evaluate the apparent density and the relative expansion ratio of raw materials and DIC-treated samples in a future study. The apparent density, defined as the relationship between the mass and volume of the material (which includes pore volume and water), and the relative expansion ratio, defined as a volumetric ratio between DIC and conventional hot air-dried products [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], will help to better understand the impact of DIC processing parameters (steam pressure and treatment time) on the new microporous structure generated by the auto vaporization process.…”