Heat and non-heat treatments for maintaining food quality and safety. A review article

Abstract

Currently, food safety and security policies worldwide are gaining more strength in food production, making the optimization of preservation techniques generate a lot of interest for researchers in the food industry. The objective of this review is to analyze the thermal and non-thermal treatments used in the food sector. For this purpose, 62 scientific articles that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed. The results of the analysis identified the challenges of thermal treatments and how they can degrade foods. Non-thermal technologies (ultrasound, SC-CO2, HIPEF, cold plasma, pulsed energy, cryogenics, ozonation, membrane filtration, ionizing radiation and high hydrostatic pressure (HPP)) were also identified as promising alternatives, which prevent the formation of undesirable compounds and better preserve nutrients and sensory properties. It’s concluded that the implementation of these technologies has demonstrated significant improvements in shelf life and improvements in food safety and quality.