Increasing consumer demand for sustainable, safer and healthier products has compelled food industry to look for natural, environmentally friendly processes that help to keep fresh food characteristics such as flavour and nutrients while providing food safety and extending shelf life. High pressure processing (HPP) meets 100 per cent of these requirements.
HPP is a non-thermal technology that applies high isostatic pressure (up to 6 000 bar), during some seconds or minutes to provide:
- Food Safety: it inactivates pathogens such as Listeria, E.Coli, Salmonella, Vibrio or Norovirus.
- Export Opportunities: it reduces spoilage microorganism, permitting extension of the shelf life from few days up to months, under refrigeration conditions, reducing the use of preservatives such as salt and helping to reduce food waste.
- Food and Environmental Sustainability: a green technology that keeps the original nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of the product. HPP units only use electricity to reach the desired pressure and the water used in the pressurising process is recycled.
Hiperbaric is the global leading supplier of High Pressure Processing equipment for the food and beverage industry.
Here are five trends the company believes will impact the HPP industry this year and beyond:
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Ready-to-eat meals (RTE) and ready-to-drink beverages (RTD)
Convenience remains as one of the main trends, both in RTE and regular HPP products. The 2020 consumer wants meals that provide comfort but with extras of flavour, quality and variety, because more and more families are looking to make their busy schedule compatible with a healthy and varied diet, with high added value and relegating fast food to an exception. Companies producing food and beverages HPP, such as The Soup Spoon, Tappers, Sandrige Foods or Villa Food have managed to guide their product portfolio to respond to this trend.
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Single bite snacks
As a prominent trend within the RTE, we find a growing demand for healthy snacks to ‘kill a craving’ between meals, an HPP trend that has reached both the protein and vegetable sectors and is aimed at an adult audience, but also children, as part of a much more responsible and healthy food education. Fresh Bellies or Bright Foods are some examples of these snacks for children.
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Sustainability in all areas
Concern about our use of raw materials and how we manage waste is a growing trend that is reflected in food and beverage purchase decisions. Consumers demand a greater commitment to the food industries, not only in the management of packaging but also in the origin of raw materials, transportation of goods and food waste. Industries that produce HPP products have taken the lead in this trend. Here are some examples:
– Yumi
– Press
– Expressed Juice
– Tommies
– La Nana
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Plant-based products
Not only is it an exclusive trend of HPP, but it is THE trend with capital letters. All sectors join it, including meat that has seen in the growing demand for plant-based foods, a very lucrative line of business in which to diversify. The R&D developments aimed at providing these foods of vegetable origin with organoleptic characteristics, mainly taste and texture, similar to meat products are numerous and the achievements really exciting.
Companies like Good Foods, L’Atelier V and Applegate have joined this HPP trend.
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Food for more than just a pet
The concern for the health and well-being of our pets is an upward trend that has climbed in high hydrostatic pressures (HPP), not only for food safety of raw materials processed by this technology but also for the numerous advantages that entails at a nutritional level and useful life. Some industries, such as Petkis and Kiwi Kitchens, already know this technology and have seen what it can bring them.
