High pressure processing for preservation, modification and transformation of foods

Commercial, high pressure treated food products have been delivered to the Japanese, the US and the European market. Parallel to these development activities intensive research work has been carried out. Within the European Union three major research projects devoted to high pressure research have been completed and a sound knowledge base has been accumulated on inactivation kinetics of microorganisms and enzymes, on biopolymers (proteins, polysaccharides) as well as on real food systems (e.g. juices, dairy product, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables). One of the obstacles in furthering high pressure development in Europe is the current Novel Food Legislation and its slow execution.