ABSTRACT
In the current world, with the increase in demand for nutritious and minimally processed foods close to natural taste, greater shelf-life, and additive-free, one needs to move on from traditional thermal processing techniques. So, one of the energy-efficient non-thermal technologies is hydrodynamic cavitation (HC); it is a technique in which high energy is generated when a bubble implodes due to a drop in local pressure followed by an increase (basically a cavitation phenomenon). While cavitation has a detrimental effect on hydraulic systems, a serious concern, its energy can be used for several physical and chemical processes in other sectors like the food industry. The food and beverage sectors have used the principle of HC as an aid to homogenise, pasteurise, break, or combine food macromolecules. Keeping the capability of HC in food processing in view, the present chapter is focused on discussing the detailed mechanism involved in HC, various effects induced in the food product environment, various devices for generating this effect, and possible industrial applications in the food processing sector.
