Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Today, the preservation of perishable food is still a challenge for the food industry. For this reason, new strategies able to extend the shelf-life of food and, at the same time, preserve their organoleptic properties must be developed. Moreover, the fight against the climate change is, nowadays, one of the main concerns in the UE. In order to progressively reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, Spain demands global energy savings in the industry. Therefore, new technologies for food preservation should reduce energy requirements and be environmentally friendly. Hyperbaric storage could be one of these new technologies. This preservation method consists in storing food under pressure (25-200 MPa), either at room or at low temperature, for time periods of some days, weeks, or even months. In hyperbaric storage, pressure is intended to be used as the key limiting factor for microbial growth, just like low temperature in conventional refrigeration. Therefore, during hyperbaric storage, cold requirements can be reduced to a minimum and this could imply substantial energy savings. Several studies in the literature show that hyperbaric storage could offer interesting advantages for food preservation. However, to gain these benefits, the storage conditions should be previously optimized because, depending on the product and the pressure and temperature applied, important quality degradation can also occur in the product. Unfortunately, up to now, studies in the literature have only examined a few food products and isolated pressure and temperature conditions.