Studies of the effects of high pressures on foods date back over a century. The first data in history on the effects of high hydrostatic pressure on organisms were most likely complied by Certes in 1883 who found viable bacteria in water samples obtained from 5100 m depth.
In 1899, Bert Hite of the Agriculture Research Stations in Morganstown, West Virginia, USA, designed and constructed a high pressure unit to pasteurize milk and other food products.
It was the first time demonstrated in the destruction bacteria. He reported that the high pressure processing of food involves the application of hydrostatic pressure typically in the order of 100 MPa and above. Subsequent work by Hite and co-workers expanded from treatment of milk and meats products to fruit and vegetables.
High pressure processing or pascalization is named after Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French scientist who describes how contained fluids are affected by pressure.
The drawback of this method it is costly to implement.
Scientists reactivated research on high pressure processing from the end of the 1980’s. In 1989 food related high pressure activities were begun at Kyoto University in Japan. This high pressure process consists of applying an isostatic pressure to a food place in a high pressure vessel.
High pressure in food processing
