In the past food was processed using heat, but this harmed the quality of the products. Today techniques are used based on very high levels of pressure, in order to stop bacterial processes in foods.
The Spanish company NC Hyperbaric goes beyond this, and inserts foods into flexible and well-sealed containers. Afterward these are placed in a cylinder whose chamber is filled with water; pumping water is the very mechanism which increases the pressure. At very high pressures, microorganisms are destroyed but not the nutrients in the foods. In this manner the product maintains all of its qualities.
Based on this premise, Hyperbaric is rising to the challenge and installing the first iWave 6000/420 machine in the world at the Millard Refrigerated company, based in Nebraska. This system has greater capacity than others in the market, and can process more than two tons of food an hour, at 6,000 atmospheres of pressure. As such, it can work with meat, vegetable, juice, dairy and seafood products, “managing to multiply the useful life between two and four times, guaranteeing food safety and achieving the label natural and free of artificial additives”, according to management.
Its chamber has a capacity of 420 liters, with a large diameter (380 millimeters) in order to make the most of each cycle’s product load. This equipment is able to carry out a complete processing at the maximum working pressure in less than six minutes. With this equipment, NC Hyperbaric responds to the growing demand in the food industry which works with large volumes and deals with high levels of production. Overall, it’s possible to reduce technology costs in high pressure processing.
Many companies have used this technology for different ends besides pasteurization. For example, shellfishing firms from Mississippi and Japan use the pressure to open bivalves such as oysters and mussels, without the tough manual process that was previously required.