Europeon study of high-pressure processing for foods

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has declared that high-pressure processing (HPP) of food is able to effectively destroy dangerous bacteria and that the process itself poses no more dangers to food safety than other treatment methods.

High-pressure processing is a non-thermal means of preserving food where very high pressures are used instead of a high temperature being used to kill microbes. The study by the EFSA found that HPP was successful at reducing rates of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and E. coli in various foods and it can also serve to give a product a longer shelf life.

HPP is already used in treatment of food in Australia, where manufacturers avail themselves of it to treat raw ingredients such as juices and milk as well as processed food such as sliced meat, ready-to-eat meals and other foods. The CSIRO committed to the method back in 2001 when it set about researching HPP and developing new technologies to allow its use.

In their study of the process, the EFSA states that the HPP can be safely used to disinfect some foods, such as ready-to-eat meat products as well as milk, fruit juices and smoothies but is not able to kill bacteria in other ready-to-eat products sufficiently to be legally sold. Raw milk can be processed this way but requires specific timing parameters for HPP to be effective.

The EU doesn’t regulate HPP specifically but the advice from the EFSA will be used to inform future decisions regarding its use in Europe.

The study into the use of high-pressure processing has been published for widespread viewing.

https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.7128

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