Did you know High Pressure Processing (HPP) offers substantial benefits for sauce processors? This clean-label technology from JBT Avure, famed for its ability to preserve taste and texture, delivers significant food safety and shelf-life advantages that can increase the commercial viability of a brand.
More than this, HPP improves the consistency and viscosity of sauces without the need to use binders by optimizing the biochemical properties of starch found in most sauces such as swelling and solubility, as well as decreasing retrogradation which maintains organoleptic quality.
“The two benefits of HPP for sauces are microbial control and organoleptic,” says Errol Raghubeer, Senior Vice President for HPP Science & Technology at JBT Avure.
“When you HPP sauces, they tend to have a better mouthfeel, a better quality because of the unique behavior of starches under pressure, giving you a better consistency and viscosity.
“Then there are the food safety and shelf-life advantages: HPP will get rid of dangerous bacteria like listeria, and at the same time it will inactivate spoilage bacteria, as well as yeast and mold.”
The result, says Raghubeer, is that it is very easy to consistently achieve six-nine months of shelf-life for sauces (depending on ingredients and packaging) by using HPP.
Boosting quality
Highly-processed foods have received a bad press of late with media and consumer concern growing over the presence of preservatives and other additives; here again HPP can play a beneficial role. According to Raghubeer, HPP allows processors to reduce or eliminate some of the binders or gums commonly used in sauces to give them body by effectively delivering the desired consistency without the need for additives.
“Typically, shelf-stable sauces can last for as much as a year, but these sauces often don’t have any taste or flavor and manufacturers also need to add preservatives,” he says. “With HPP, the original product taste and texture is kept intact and there is also no need to use chemical preservatives to extend the shelf-life.”
A further benefit can be found with more delicate sauces that shouldn’t be heated too much. In these cases, HPP will preserve flavor and nutrition significantly; elements which are lost if the sauces are overcooked. An additional benefit of HPP’d starches is that they can be easier to digest which is of importance to certain population groups, particularly the elderly.
Raghubeer adds: “There’s a big upswing in demand for HPP among sauce processors right now. Companies want a better quality sauce and they can achieve that by using HPP.”