The Power of Pressure

Historically, retailers and food processors around the word have been using various food preservation methods to preserve different food items. The single most important purpose of these methods remained delivering the highest possible value to customers. Retailers strive to deliver the highest value to customers because of the consumers’ ever-increasing demand for higher and higher quality. Food value or quality here means freshness, appearance, and hidden nutritive value over the life span of a food item. Most often nutritive value remains hidden, but it is of the highest value among all the value creating contents of a food item. Various labelling requirements disclose nutritive value to consumers for better decision making at the time of buying a food item. Still, the term quality is more often than not unclear to customers. However, a customer is always in a position to judge quality of products at least while consuming a food item and at the time of buying a food item because of labeling. Thus, retailers always remain under “pressure” to meet quality standards to win the consumers’ preference to their food items.

The demand for quality has been robust and the standards of quality are moving up day by day creating pressure on retailers to deliver value to customers. Under pressure of demand for quality, retailers employed technologies to preserve food items. When they looked for appropriate technology, industry responded by providing retailers with new technologies and methods to preserve and package food for delivering the highest possible value to customers. By designing and developing machines and equipment, industry has always converted theory into practical technology useful for retailers in food niche. The industry has placed two important variables at the disposal of a retailer: temperature and pressure. In practical form these two variables are at the base of two food preservation processes: Pasteurization, and Pascalization.

Pasteurization: use of heat/temperature

Louis Pasteur told people that heat/temperature can preserve food when applied to various food items. Industry designed equipment for enabling temperature to work for preserving food items. The method designed was “Pasteurization”. This method dominated the food preservation markets since its discovery as an effective technique to destroy and control bioactive agents inside food. Pasteurization is also in use, widely across the globe. However, the dominance of “temperature” on food markets is in serious danger because of entry of “pressure” as an effective way to preserve food.

Pascalization: use of pressure

Pascalization, or high pressure processing (HPP), is a method which preserves food under very high pressure. The pressure is high enough to inactivate microorganisms and enzymes in the food that cause food deterioration. Rapid research and quick development of Pascalization machines are adding to the resources and power of the retailers to deliver value to consumers.

A food retailer making use of HPP technology has power pressure to preserve food:

1 - In a way that delivers maximum value to customers; and

2 - For a longer period.

These two simple outcomes of HPP technology have revolutionizing effects on food retailing. The effects are on the entire supply chain in food markets – from production to shelf-storage and even storage by customers before consuming a food item.

It seems, pressure will dominate food preservation markets in coming years; it has power to at least become major partner with temperature if the current technologies do not allow it to replace “temperature” altogether.