Since centuries foods have been preserved by heating, chilling, drying, salting, conserving, acidification, oxygen-removal, fermenting, adding various preservatives, etc., and often these methods were applied in combinations. More recently the underlying principles of these traditional methods have been defined (i.e., F, t, aw, pH, Eh, competitive flora, various preservatives), and effective limits of these factors for microbial growth, survival, and death were established. Food preservation and also food quality depends in most cases on the empirical and now more often on the deliberate and...

During the past decade, consumer demand for convenient, fresh-like, safe, high-quality food products has grown. The food industry has responded by applying a number of new technologies including high hydrostatic pressure for food processing and preservation. In addition, food scientists have demonstrated the feasibility of industrial-scale high pressure processing. This technology is of specific interest to the food industry because it provides an attractive alternative to conventional methods of thermal processing, which often produce undesirable changes in foods and hamper the balance...