Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-wxvwp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T11:46:50.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

New processing technologies: an overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2007

Grahame W. Gould*
Affiliation:
17 Dove Road, Bedford MK41 7AA, UK
*
Corresponding Author: Professor G. W. Gould, fax +44 1234 222277, email grahame@ggould.fsnet.co.uk
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Most food-preservation techniques act by slowing down or completely inhibiting the growth of micro-organisms. Few techniques act by inactivating them. While heat remains the technique most extensively used for inactivation, there has been increasing interest recently in the development of alternative approaches in response to the desires of consumers for products which are less organoleptically and nutritionally damaged during processing and less reliant on additives than previously. The new approaches, therefore, mostly involve technologies that offer full or partial alternatives to heat for the inactivation of bacteria, yeasts and moulds. They include the application to foods of high hydrostatic pressure, high-voltage electric discharges, high-intensity laser and non-coherent light pulses, ‘manothermosonication’ (the combination of mild heating with ultrasonication and slightly-raised pressure), and high-magnetic-field pulses. In addition, a number of naturally-occurring antimicrobials, including lysozyme and low-molecular-weight products of micro-organisms are finding increasing use. High pressure is being used commercially to non-thermally pasteurize a number of foods, while the other physical procedures are in various stages of development and commercial evaluation. Possible nutritional consequences have so far been given little attention compared with microbiological ones.

Information

Type
Symposium on ‘Nutritional effects of new processing technologies’
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2001