HIGH-Q-RTE – Innovative non-thermal processing technologies to improve the quality and safety of ready-to-eat meal

The project aims to improve the safety and quality of three representative categories of European ready-to-eat foods: ready-to-eat salads, fluid foods, and ready-to-eat vegetable based meals.

European ready-to-eat foods, and particularly Refrigerated Processed Foods of Extended Durability (REPFEDs), are frequently contaminated with pathogenic species.
In order to enhance the safety of the three categories of foods, and at the same time prevent the heat-induced chemico-physical and nutritional changes, non-thermal novel processes will be developed and applied.

For ready-to-eat vegetable and fruit salads, procedures based on Photosensitization (PHOTO) will be set up in order to drastically reduce the contamination level of naturally occurring and inoculated pathogenic species in vegetable raw materials and packaging.

For fluid foods (soups, egg/milk based creamy emulsion, low acid fruit juices) Pulsed Electric Fields technologies (PEF) and semi-continuous High Pressure Homogenization (HPH) will be compared both in terms of pathogenic species inactivation and changes of the properties of proteins as well as food microstructure and rheology. The ability of the latter technology to activate naturally occurring or exogenous enzymes will be exploited in order to generate new bioactive natural food components.

For ready-to-eat meals (of vegetable origin) low-medium levels of Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP) will be applied to meals packaged under CO2 atmosphere (LMPCO) in comparison and in addition to traditional mild heat processes.