Emerging technologies: chemical aspects

Consumer demands for high-quality foods with fresh-like characteristics that require only a minimum amount of effort and time for preparation has led to the introduction of convenience foods preserved by mild treatments. Non-thermal methods allow the processing of foods below temperatures used during thermal pasteurisation, so flavours, essential nutrients, and vitamins undergo minimal or no changes. Foods can be non-thermally processed by irradiation, high hydrostatic pressure, antimicrobials, ultrasound, filtration, and electrical methods such as pulsed electric fields, light pulses, and oscillating magnetic fields. Due to technological developments, high pressure processing and high electric field pulse processing have received increased attention during the last decade. This paper focuses on high pressure treatment of foods, a process which is also used to create food and food ingredients with new sensory and functional properties including also physiological functionality. Effects of high pressure on chemical and sensory changes in foods are discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.