Over the last decades, there has been an increasing demand by consumers for fresh and minimally processed food products capable of satisfying their high nutritional and sensorial requirements. This has subsequently promoted the development of alternative novel technologies for food preservation. These include high hydrostatic pressure technology (HHP), high pressure homogenization (HPH) and pulsed electric field technology (PEF) which have attracted the attention of numerous researchers from both the academic and industrial worlds, as highlighted by the increasingly large number of scientific publications dealing with the potential applications of novel technologies to either preserve or improve food quality. HPH and HHP processes consist of either the direct or indirect pressurization of foods up to a very high pressure level (HHP can be also used to process solid foods), while very short electric pulses of high intensity are used to treat food products placed between two electrodes in PEF processing. While HHP processes are already being used for several commercial applications, HPH and PEF processed foods are still not available on the market. This is principally due to a delay in the regulatory approval process as well as the lack of a reliable mathematical model capable of predicting microbial inactivation under different processing conditions and accounting for the role played on inactivation by the physical and chemical characteristics of foods. This chapter summarizes the latest experimental results obtained in the processing of liquids as well as semi-solid and solid foods. It not only discusses the advantages deriving from the use of the innovative technologies but also defines the criteria adopted for the selection of the technology as well as the design of the processing cycles, with particular attention being given to the impact of each technology on both the sensorial (colour, aroma, taste) and nutritional properties. Particular consideration is given to the effect of novel technologies on the content of nutraceutical compounds, which are generally degraded when using conventional thermal technologies.Microbial stability is also considered in order to ensure the safety of the processed products. Finally, the residual activity of some enzymes, such as polyphenoloxidase (PPO), which causes the degradation of the nutraceutical compounds, reducing the shelf-life of the processed products, is also taken into account as an additional parameter for the optimization of the processing conditions.

EFFECTS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ON FOOD QUALITY

DONSI', FRANCESCO;FERRARI, Giovanna;PATARO, GIANPIERO
2011-01-01

Abstract

Over the last decades, there has been an increasing demand by consumers for fresh and minimally processed food products capable of satisfying their high nutritional and sensorial requirements. This has subsequently promoted the development of alternative novel technologies for food preservation. These include high hydrostatic pressure technology (HHP), high pressure homogenization (HPH) and pulsed electric field technology (PEF) which have attracted the attention of numerous researchers from both the academic and industrial worlds, as highlighted by the increasingly large number of scientific publications dealing with the potential applications of novel technologies to either preserve or improve food quality. HPH and HHP processes consist of either the direct or indirect pressurization of foods up to a very high pressure level (HHP can be also used to process solid foods), while very short electric pulses of high intensity are used to treat food products placed between two electrodes in PEF processing. While HHP processes are already being used for several commercial applications, HPH and PEF processed foods are still not available on the market. This is principally due to a delay in the regulatory approval process as well as the lack of a reliable mathematical model capable of predicting microbial inactivation under different processing conditions and accounting for the role played on inactivation by the physical and chemical characteristics of foods. This chapter summarizes the latest experimental results obtained in the processing of liquids as well as semi-solid and solid foods. It not only discusses the advantages deriving from the use of the innovative technologies but also defines the criteria adopted for the selection of the technology as well as the design of the processing cycles, with particular attention being given to the impact of each technology on both the sensorial (colour, aroma, taste) and nutritional properties. Particular consideration is given to the effect of novel technologies on the content of nutraceutical compounds, which are generally degraded when using conventional thermal technologies.Microbial stability is also considered in order to ensure the safety of the processed products. Finally, the residual activity of some enzymes, such as polyphenoloxidase (PPO), which causes the degradation of the nutraceutical compounds, reducing the shelf-life of the processed products, is also taken into account as an additional parameter for the optimization of the processing conditions.
2011
9781611229172
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/3015406
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