Nonthermal food processing/preservation technologies

The main purpose of food processing is preservation in terms of the food’s quality and safety. The conventional heat treatments are efficient in terms of microbial inactivation but have a significant impact on organoleptic quality and nutritive value of foods. Nonthermal and eco-friendly emergent processing methodologies, such as high pressure processing (HPP), pulsed electric fields (PEF), and ultrasounds (US) are excellent alternatives to assure the product’s safety as well as maintaining their original quality. These methodologies play an important role for food industries contributing also to product innovation and providing more diversity of food industry products as well as more competitive and efficient processes. In this chapter, some of the main technological fundamentals of HPP, PEF, and US are discussed. The effect of each technology on food composition, microorganisms, and some of the most important applications also will be revised as well as their technological advantages and limitations. A brief discussion also will be given about the use of these emergent technologies as extraction methods in the recovery of bioactive compounds from food waste.