non-thermal technologies: there is still some room for novelties?

By Prof. Eng. Giovanna Ferrari

University of Salerno, Italy

Thursday June 25th, 2020 at 10:00 am (Mexico City, MX; 15:00 UTC)

In the last decades, the food industry has shown a rising interest in non-thermal technologies, such as high-pressure processing (HPP), high-pressure homogenization (HPH), and high-intensity pulsed light (HILP) for food processing to achieve food safety and improve or maintain the quality of the processed products.

It is well known that these technologies can affect the chemical-physical characteristics of food compounds, and these effects could be utilized to design new to the market products or to modify the structure of some components to reduce the risks associated with their ingestion in target populations.

Indeed, one of the most important effects induced in foods by applying HPP, HPH, and HILP consists of changing proteins conformation, which, in turn, affects the Tecno-functional properties, as well as denaturation, aggregation, or gelation phenomena, depending on processing conditions and type of protein considered. During this seminar, will be illustrated and discussed the results of the application of HHP, HPH, and HELP technologies to reduce protein allergenicity and increase the hydrolysis reaction rate to produce hypoallergenic hydrolysates. Also, a mathematical model describing the HPP assisted hydrolysis process will be presented.