Advantages of high pressure sterilisation on quality of food products

High pressure processing can be used for sterilisation of food products if applied at elevated temperatures and using the temperature increase due to adiabatic compression. By choosing the appropriate process conditions, it is possible to completely inactivate both vegetative cells and microbial spores resulting in food products that are shelf stable. The quality of high pressure sterilised products is usually superior to conventionally heat sterilised products. This applies particularly to texture, flavour and retention of nutrients. The effect of high-pressure sterilisation on colour is product dependent. This varies between a full retention of the fresh colour and the same colour change as obtained by conventional techniques. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved