Food safety concerns and equipment advances make high-pressure processing more appealing to refrigerated food processors.
You’ve heard about an idea whose time has come. Here’s a technology whose time has finally come.
Did you know high-pressure processing (HPP) technology dates back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s? Scientists wanted to kill spoilage bacteria in highly perishable foods such as milk and meat. To do this, they packaged and placed those foods in specialized water cylinders and then increased the vessel’s hydrostatic pressure.
Bottom line. These researchers realized that pascalization (named after 18th century physicist-inventor Blaise Pascal, who studied the effects of pressure on fluids) could work. Because the pressure is transmitted uniformly (simultaneously, in all directions), food can retain its shape, even at extreme pressure. And because no heat is needed, the process maintains a product’s sensory characteristics while it kills harmful bacteria. Bacteria are inactivated at levels of 58,000 to 87,000 psi in cold water (at less than 45