Abstract:

Thermal processing (pasteurization and/or sterilization) has been used as an effective and economical technique for ensuring microbiological food safety in food industry. However, it also results in the deterioration of quality such as color alteration, taste modification, aroma loss, nutrient degradation and textural change. Currently, non-thermal processing (NTP) has attracted extensive attention and gained more acceptances from government, food industry and academic institutes since it can inactivate microorganisms and enzymes at lower temperature. The researches and applications related to NTP have been rapidly developed, and high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) has successfully been commercialized. Based on the comprehensive analysis, five fundamental issues dealing with microorganisms, enzymes, food quality, food safety and others are reviewed and discussed in this paper.

Key words: thermal processing, non-thermal processing, pasteurization and/or sterilization, enzyme inactivation, food quality, food safety