CHAPTER 19 - High-Pressure Homogenization for Food Sanitization

Abstract

High-pressure homogenization (HPH) is introduced through the development of a new generation of homogenizers, capable of attaining pressures 10–15 times higher than traditional machines. Depending on the purpose of the HPH treatment, two main areas can be identified. The first area is mainly concerned with the physical changes induced in HPH-processed products, such as the reduction of size and narrowing of size distribution of particles, droplets, or micelles in suspensions or emulsions, for the preparation or stabilization of emulsions, or preparation of nanoparticles and nanosuspensions, or for attaining viscosity and texture changes. HPH technology is likely to support many different applications in the dairy and food industry, enhancing food safety and quality and/or delivering new products to the market. In spite of the high potential of this technology, not all potential applications have yet been exploited, due to the lack of well-established knowledge about the interactions between HPH and food materials. This technology, which in fact differs from simple homogenization, may also induce the physical modification of aggregation profiles or even of the molecular structure of biopolymers such as milk proteins, polysaccharides, or complexes and can produce a definite effect on microbial inactivation.