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High Pressure Water Cleans FoodRonald Porep, SafetyIssues |
Volume 1 Issue 3February 2002 |
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Remember when your mother told you to always wash your
food? Well, scientists are using high pressure water to clean out the
hidden bugs that cause our food to make us sick or spoil without cooking
all the flavor and nutrition out of our food. The process – being pioneered by Fresher Under Pressure – uses water under pressure starting at about 37,000 pounds per square inch to squeeze the germs but not the color, flavor, nutrients or texture out of avocado slices, deli meats, guacamole, juices and raw oysters. In addition, the water shucks the oysters. |
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The process is actually a spin off of a similar process Flow uses ultra
high pressure water jets to cut everything from disposable diapers to Fig
Newtons and even 12 -inch thick titanium. “Pressurized food is much closer to natural looking. Treated orange juice and salsa look and taste like freshly prepared,” explains Bala, adding that the high pressure water is only the first step in a goal to create food tat can keep fresh for months or even years without refrigeration. |
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How? Just combine the high pressure and moderate heat – between 158 and 203 degrees – will do the trick claim researchers whose work is being supported by the United States Army to replace Meals Ready To Eat (MRE) – lesser known as today’s rations. Foods are simply placed in a stainless steel processor – liquids are pumped through – and pressure is applied for a few minute at most to clean out the food. Food must contain moisture for the process to work. The food is not crushed because the pressure is applied uniformly as on the bottom of the ocean where pressure is about 15,000 pounds per square inch. The process wipes out bacteria such as ecoli and Listeria, according to researcher V.M. Bala of the National Center for Food Safety and Technology near Chicago where the process creator – Flow International – works with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Illinois Institute of Technology to develop new good technologies. “The meals will taste just prepared when heated and served. “Irradiation and high temperatures can undermine flavor and nutrition. Freezing and thawing change foods leaving some vegetables kind of kind of limp, kind of tough and chewy. |
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“This technology will get us to point where food will be a lot
crisper and a lot more fresh like,” describes Edmund Ting, chief
technology officer of Fresher Under Pressure. But the new process will not replace other older technologies in certain cases. Pasteurization for canned goods will not be replaced by pressure treatment. “The best use of pressure treatment at this stage is higher value, heat sensitive foods. “Not just vitamins but folic acids, niacin – all of these nutritional components are harmed by heat. After orange juice is conventionally heat processed (for example) some of the Vitamin C is put back but some of these things people do not put back because consumers are unaware of them,” explains Ting of the process which may also have medicinal uses particularly with viruses. The military expects to be using the high pressure process to make military food safe by 2005 – a task more formidable than required for civilian food as military food is required to last three years at temperatures around 80 degree. The civilian version is already being tested by product manufacture. |
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