Shelf-life extension of watermelon juice preserved by hyperbaric storage at room temperature compared to refrigeration

Abstract

This work reports Hyperbaric Storage (HS) preservation of raw watermelon juice at variable/uncontrolled room temperature (RT, ≈ 21 °C) for 7 days at 100 MPa and compared it with refrigeration (RF). At the end of storage, there was an increase in microbial counts (total aerobic mesophiles, psychrophiles, and yeasts and moulds) to above 6 log10 CFU/mL for samples stored at atmospheric pressure (RF and RT), while juice stored under HS/RT showed maximum values of about 2 log10 CFU/mL for total aerobic mesophiles/psychrophiles and below the detection limit for yeasts and moulds. HS/RT juice showed also physicochemical parameters at levels similar to the initial juice. Thus, HS/RT can not only be used to preserve foods with no refrigeration energetic costs (since it does not require temperature control), but additionally, has also a great potential to extend the shelf-life of food products, compared to RF. This is the first case in the literature showing this additional potential/advantage of HS/RT.