High pressure processing of fruits and vegetables

Purpose of review: Hi gh pressure processing (HPP) is one of the many novel techniques for processing food materials. This revi ew details potential applications of the HPP technique for fruit and vegetable processing. Recent findings: HPP employs high pressures (400–1200 MPa) to kill microorganisms and inactivate the enzymes that cause un desirable changes in fruits and vegetables, which reduces their shelf-life. This technique can be applied with minimal increase in product temperature. HPP is gaining in popularity because of its potential to achieve desirable effects with minimum changes i n sensory and nutritional attributes, and reliable food safety. Directions for future research: Fu ture research should: evaluate synergistic effects among pressure, temperature and other v ariables, investigate the influence of pressure on reduction/eli mination of pathogenic and spoilage microbial populations, invest igate the inactivation of enzymes in fruits and vegetables using a proper experimental design so that kinetic parameters are q uantified, identify and evaluate the critical pr ocess factors for the survival of pathogens or surrogates in a statistical manner, and de velop Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plans for the application of HPP for the processing fruits and vegetabl es.