Effect of thermal treatment under high pressure on the quality of a meat sauce

It is known that pressure alone is not able to make shelf-stable any food stored in room conditions. Acid products are normally spoiled by enzymes, and low acid products are spoiled even by spore-forming micro-organisms. To overcome the problem the role of heat in the process has been re-evaluated and the possibility of destroying at the same time spores and enzymes has been found. This work compares the effect of sterilisation by High Pressure Processing (HPP) with one of the conventional retort processing techniques. Two batches of meat sauce were kept in room conditions over a year and their quality was evaluated periodically during the shelf life simulation. The physico-chemical characteristics of the retorted ones showed a progressive appearance of the typical thermal damage. The High Pressure Sterilised samples on the contrary showed limited damage, related to the unavoidable pre-heating. Their quality markers were constant over the shelf life evaluated period.