ABSTRACT
In the pursuit of new food preservation procedures to obtain products of high nutritional and sensorial quality that are microbiologically safe, with long shelf life, and with characteristics similar to those of fresh products, the use of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) has received much focus around the world due its different applications. Thus, maximum interest in exploiting this technology as applied to biological systems has increased in recent years. When applying high pressure (HP) to preservation of foods, microorganisms are inactivated without the use of heat and, therefore, vitamin content, flavor of foods, or color of foods is not affected (Swientek, 1992; Palou et al., 2000b); thus, change is minimal. For this reason, the application of HP is considered a ‘‘cold’’ process (Crawford et al., 1996). Progress of research within the food and pharmaceutical industries has, during recent years, allowed manufacture of products with HP.
