Emerging Non-Thermal Technologies in Food Preservation

Food is deemed unsafe if it constitutes either a physical, chemical or biological hazard to the consumer. Ensuring the production of microbiologically safe products is a necessity for every food or beverage operation. But for some products, traditional heat-dependent pathogen-reduction methods such as thermization, pasteurization and in-container sterilization can adversely affect taste, nutritional value and appearance. New trends in food processing, product development and quality assurance are promoting intense research on alternative methods for food preservation. Most foods are thermally preserved by subjecting the products to boiling (or even higher) temperatures for a few seconds to several minutes. These high-energy treatments usually diminish cooking flavors, and cause loss of vitamins, essential nutrients, and food flavors in the product. To overcome or minimize such disadvantages, the concept of non thermal treatments was born.