Status and Trends of Novel Thermal and Non-Thermal Technologies for Fluid Foods

Publisher Summary Traditional thermal treatments are a cornerstone of the food industry providing required safety profiles and extensions of shelf-life. However, such treatments may lead to losses of desired organoleptic properties and damage to temperature labile nutrients and vitamins. Consequently, novel thermal and nonthermal technologies have been designed to meet the required food product safety or shelf-life demands while minimizing the effects on a product's nutritional and quality attributes. There is a general consensus among the regulatory agencies that novel technologies are of benefit to both food processors and consumers alike. Given the complexities of food matrices and the range of foods produced, validating processes is a challenge for industry. More expedited validation processes are likely with validation of comparable products for a given technology. These technological drivers for validation are: shelf-life extension, nutritional and sensory aspects, novel functional and organoleptic properties, consumer acceptability, and environmental impact. For the best preservation method, combining a nonthermal process with conventional preservation or another nonthermal technology may enhance the overall antimicrobial effect so that lower process intensities can be employed. This approach, known as “hurdle technology,” has already been applied successfully using traditional techniques of food preservation. Combining nonthermal methods with other food preservation techniques can enhance the lethal effects of nonthermal processing, reduce the severity of nonthermal treatment needed to obtain a given level of microbial inactivation, and prevent the proliferation of survivors following treatment.