WP3 – High Pressure Homogenization (HPH)

WP LEADER: M. Elisabetta Guerzoni (University of Bologna)

It will be focused on the evaluation of the efficacy of HPH treatment for the improvement of the safety and quality of fluid food products. The studies will be performed on vegetable based soups, egg/milk creamy emulsions, low acid fruit juices using semi-continuous high pressure homogenization equipment located at DIPROVAL (UNIBO) and further validated by using a pilot scale plant located at NIRO SOAVI which will be involved as sub-contractor.

The combined effects of compositional and technological factors on enzymatic, microbiological, microstructural, organoleptic and nutritional aspects will be evaluated. In addition, a possible enhancement or inactivation of the activity of some naturally occurring enzymes will be assessed in relation to process parameters in order to their further use as food ingredients.

The effectiveness of the process will be studied for pathogenic and spoilage species deliberately inoculated at high and low levels in model systems and fluid foods.

The composition of the microbial community will be determined before and after HPH treatment, and during storage by using traditional methods as well as molecular tools.

The detection of the surviving and resuscitated/re-growing cells will enable the development of probabilistic models in WP6.