Hyperbaric storage at room temperature for food preservation: A study in strawberry juice

Hyperbaric storage at room temperature was evaluated as a new food preservation method. To do that, strawberry juices maintained at different pressure levels (0.1, 25, 100 or 220 MPa) and 20 degrees C for 15 days were compared to raw and thermally pasteurized samples stored at atmospheric pressure and 5 degrees C for the same period. Hyperbaric storage reduced the initial microbial load of the juices by more than 2 log units to levels below the limit of detection. Moreover, pressure was effective to attenuate viscosity and color losses in the samples stored at 20 degrees C. Stability of the samples after the hyperbaric storage was good and microbial load, viscosity and color remained stable when the samples were kept under refrigeration at atmospheric pressure for 15 additional days. All these results show that hyperbaric storage could represent an interesting technology for short-term preservation of food. Industrial relevance: Effective management of the cold chain to maintain the highest quality of food is nowadays expensive and energy consuming and this can jeopardize the sustainability of the food supply chains. The results obtained in this paper suggest that hyperbaric storage at room temperature could be an interesting technology for short-term preservation of strawberry juice. It could imply important energy savings in different sections of the cold chain. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.