The Application of Hurdle Technology in Extending Food Shelf Life

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Packaging and Preservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2024) | Viewed by 3966

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: processing; preservation techniques and quality control of fruits and vegetables; methods of food processing; shelf life studies and quality assessment; non thermal processes; osmotic pretreatment of animal (meat and fish products) and vegetable tissues for shelf life extension; smart packaging (Time temperature Indicators); hurdle technology application; novel food production; sensory evaluation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: food engineering; non thermal processing; quality and shelf life modelling; food product development; fruit and vegetable technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Several traditional food preservation methods (such as thermal processing, drying, freezing, etc.) are used to effectively control the growth of microorganisms and delay the spoilage of food products. To better preserve or even improve quality, innovative nonthermal processing techniques have been introduced as alternatives to more intense techniques (such as pulse electric fields, high-pressure processing, osmotic dehydration, etc.). The purposes of innovative processing also include the production of shelf-stable foods, the reduction in food losses, the sustainable use of energy and water, and the generation of food ingredients/novel foods from by-products. In this context, hurdle technology promotes the careful combination of traditional and innovative preservation/processing methods, in order to establish a series of parameters/hurdles that microorganisms are unable to overcome. The individual hurdles may be implemented simultaneously or sequentially, depending on the overall processing procedure. The application of hurdle technology is a valuable tool for obtaining the required microbial stability and safety, as well as the minimum quality degradation, of the food product.

In this Special Issue, we invite researchers to submit their data to contribute to a better understanding of the application of hurdle technology in extending food shelf life. These contributions will offer the food industry alternatives for the more efficient, less destructive, and more environmentally friendly processing of foods.

Prof. Dr. Maria C. Giannakourou
Dr. Efimia Dermesonlouoglou
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • hurdle technology
  • traditional preservation methods
  • innovative processing methods
  • nonthermal technologies
  • microbial stability
  • quality
  • shelf life

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2701 KiB  
Article
Combination of Sodium Nitroprusside and Controlled Atmosphere Maintains Postharvest Quality of Chestnuts through Enhancement of Antioxidant Capacity
by Linging Pang, Yuqian Jiang, Lan Chen, Chongxiao Shao, Li Li, Xiaodong Wang, Xihong Li and Yanfang Pan
Foods 2024, 13(5), 706; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13050706 - 26 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1456
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of CA (controlled atmosphere, 2–3% O2 + 3% CO2) and NO (nitric oxide, generated by 0.4 nM sodium nitroprusside), alone or combined (CA + NO), on the physio-chemical properties, enzyme [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of CA (controlled atmosphere, 2–3% O2 + 3% CO2) and NO (nitric oxide, generated by 0.4 nM sodium nitroprusside), alone or combined (CA + NO), on the physio-chemical properties, enzyme activities and antioxidant capacities of chestnuts during storage at 0 °C for 180 d. Compared with control (CT), CA and CA+NO both improved the storage quality of the samples, but only CA resulted in more ethanol production. Moreover, these improvements were further enhanced and ethanol synthesis was inhibited by the addition of NO. A spectrometer was used to assess the production of phenolic content (TPC) and activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), superoxide dismutas (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) as influenced by CA or CA+NO treatments. Higher TPC, PAL, SOD, POD, CAT, and lower PPO were observed in CA alone, and more so in the combination with NO group. The increased antioxidant production and enhanced antioxidant activities contributed to scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reducing malondialdehyde (MDA). This study unveiled the correlations and differences between the effects of CA and CA+NO on storage quality, providing valuable insights into postharvest preservation and suggesting that the combination (CA+NO) was more beneficial for quality maintenance in chestnuts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Application of Hurdle Technology in Extending Food Shelf Life)
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17 pages, 1385 KiB  
Article
Shelf-Life Enhancement Applying Pulsed Electric Field and High-Pressure Treatments Prior to Osmotic Dehydration of Fresh-Cut Potatoes
by Maria Katsouli, Efimia Dermesonlouoglou, George Dimopoulos, Eleftheria Karafantalou, Maria Giannakourou and Petros Taoukis
Foods 2024, 13(1), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13010171 - 3 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2045
Abstract
From a quality standpoint, it is desirable to preserve the characteristics of fresh-cut potatoes at their peak. However, due to the mechanical tissue damage during the cutting process, potatoes are susceptible to enzymatic browning. This study pertains to the selection of the appropriate [...] Read more.
From a quality standpoint, it is desirable to preserve the characteristics of fresh-cut potatoes at their peak. However, due to the mechanical tissue damage during the cutting process, potatoes are susceptible to enzymatic browning. This study pertains to the selection of the appropriate osmotic dehydration (OD), high pressure (HP), and pulsed electric fields (PEF) processing conditions leading to effective quality retention of potato cuts. PEF (0.5 kV/cm, 200 pulses) or HP (400 MPa, 1 min) treatments prior to OD (35 °C, 120 min) were found to promote the retention of the overall quality (texture and color) of the samples. The incorporation of anti-browning agents (ascorbic acid and papain) into the osmotic solution improved the color retention, especially when combined with PEF or HP due to increased solid uptake (during OD) as indicated by DEI index (2.30, 1.93, and 2.10 for OD treated 120 min, non-pre-treated, HP pre-treated, and PEF pre-treated samples, respectively). PEF and HP combined with OD and anti-browning agent enrichment are sought to improve the quality and microbial stability of fresh-cut potatoes during refrigerator storage. Untreated fresh-cut potatoes were characterized by color degradation from the 2nd day of storage at 4 °C, and presented microbial growth (total viable counts: 6 log (CFU)/g) at day 6, whereas pre-treated potato samples retained their color and microbiologically stability after 6 days of cold storage (total viable counts, <4 log(CFU)/g). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Application of Hurdle Technology in Extending Food Shelf Life)
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