Food Preservation and Analysis: Technologies and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Over recent years, consumer demand has increased for food that is easy to consume and that has a high nutritional and sensory quality therefore, they appreciate the similarity between minimally processed products and fresh ones. As a result, in recent years, the food industry as well as scientific community has shown increased interest in innovative approaches, which can provide food products with a high quality and with a reduced environmental impact, increasing the products’ added value.

Among all the innovative preservation technologies, the non-thermal ones have been extensively studied. These include methods based on high pressure such as high hydrostatic pressure, high-pressure homogenization and high-pressure carbon dioxide, but also other techniques such as pulsed electric field, ultrasound, pulsed light or cold plasma. Additionally, new thermal food preservation methods such as microwave flow heating, ohmic heating or UHT are gaining interest. The subject of scientific research and industrial application is the extent to which preservation technologies affect the content of bioactive compounds and their bioavailability in food. Of particular interest is the study of microbial reduction and the sensory characteristics of the product, including the aroma profile. An important aspect is also the inactivation of native enzymes in the context of storage studies of products processed using non-thermal methods.

Modern analytical methods, such as gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography often coupled with mass spectrometry but also other detection techniques, are used to analyze product changes. The literature often reports data analysis using chemometric statistical methods that help to comprehensively describe overall changes. After the collection of a considerable amount of data due to the protocols used, the chemometrics approach was found to be essential to interpret the results and identify interactions between production processes and effects on final food quality.

This Special Issue, therefore, focuses on current research and future prospects of applications concerning novel preservation technologies in the food industry.

Dr. Bartosz Kruszewski
Prof. Dr. Emanuele Boselli
Guest Editors

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