High pressure equipment for food processing

Abstract

Processing food with pressure improves the quality and shelf life of the product. The pressure required is normally 600 to 900 MPa (approximately 6000 to 9000 atm). Equipment for high pressure food processing is available today from ABB Pressure Systems AB. The plant can have a through-put of 300 to 6000 litres per hour at 600 MPa pressure depending on the size of the press. The processing cost at 600 MPa is between 3 to 20 pence per litre depending on production capacity. Processing at 900 MPa instead of 600 MPa will increase the cost 50%, while prolonging the processing time from 3 minutes to 6 minutes at 600 MPa, i.e. introducing a hold time, increases the cost 100%. Pressure is thus cheaper than time. The food is prepacked in flexible material and loaded into the high pressure vessel. Pure water is used as pressure transmitting medium. The pressure is increased to the value required. After decompression the food is ready for distribution.