A Short History of Research and Development Efforts Leading to the Commercialization of High-Pressure Processing of Food

Abstract

The history of the development and commercialization of high hydrostatic pressure processing of foods includes groups in Japan, Europe, and the United States. This narrative focuses on early research and development commercialization efforts starting in 1984 in the Department of Food Science at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware. Research efforts expanded in 1990 as a joint program among the University of Delaware, the Department of Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University, and the US Army Combat Feeding Directorate at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, Natick, Massachusetts. Activities of an industry-university High Pressure Consortium, managed by Marcia Walker and D. Farkas, at Oregon State University, helped commercialization by providing a focus for research, development, technology transfer, regulatory challenges, and solutions. The plan was to develop the use of high hydrostatic pressure into a profitable, new food processing technology that provided safe, fresh-tasting, convenient foods, with an extended shelf life.

Dr. Edmund Ting at Flow International recognized that breakthroughs in the design of high-pressure vessels and pump intensifiers would be needed. He pioneered unique equipment developments required by the food processing industry and helped clear the way for cost-effective commercial use of high pressure for food preservation.

The commercial use of high hydrostatic pressure for food preservation started in Japan in the late 1980s. Acid products, including yogurt and strawberry jam, were produced. These products resulted from work by a consortium of 25 companies brought together by Professor Rikimaru Hayashi to exploit the potential of high pressure as a nonthermal technology for pasteurizing foods with minimum heat damage.

Independently, Professors Dan Farkas, Dallas Hoover, and Dietrich Knorr initiated studies on the feasibility of high-pressure food processing starting in 1984 at the University of Delaware. Workers from the two programs met for the first time in June 1989 at a conference on engineering and food in Cologne, Germany, convened by Professors Walter Spiess and H. Schubert. In 1992 R. Hayashi and C. Balny edited a book (Hayashi and Balny, 1992) covering a joint conference drawing from Japanese and European research work on high-pressure food processing.

A symposium held at the University of Reading, England, on March 28–29, 1994, and the subsequent book, High Pressure Processing of Foods, serves as a milestone marking the end of the early history of research and development leading to the wide commercial use of high-pressure food processing. This symposium recognized that: “The scientific basis for the success of the process does involve many disciplines including both chemistry and microbiology. However, its commercial success, as with many food operations, has to be based on an effective integration with the engineering disciplines involved in the design and manufacture of equipment and plant capable of efficiently and safely applying such pressure to both solid and liquid food” (Ledward et al., High Pressure Processing of Foods, Nottingham University Press, Leicestershire Press, UK, 1995).