Engineering for food safety and quality

Consumer demand for safe, minimally processed, additive-free, shelf-stable foods that retain the appearance, flavor, texture and nutritional qualities of raw or fresh foods has been a driving force for commercial application of non-thermal food processing methods, such as high pressure (HP) processing. Applying high pressure at 240-350 MPa for 3 min to live oysters to create a minimal-processing environment denatured the abductor muscle and oysters could be opened without knife damage. Using this high-pressure processing technology by replacing the laborious and costly hand-shucking is the most significant development in the oyster industry in the past 100 years. This research will apply high-pressure and pressure-assisted thermal treatments on oyster to eliminate bacterial pathogens, while maintaining the qualities in the processed products. Various quality parameters such as texture, color, and structural and functional properties of the processed oysters will be analyzed and their reaction kinetics to pressure and pressure-temperature will be determined. The data and results generated will help understanding the safety and quality aspects of high-pressure-processed oysters.

Investigator: Nayak, B.

Unit: School of Food and Agriculture

Termination Date: 30-Sep-15