Effect of thermal treatment under high pressure on the quality of a meat sauce

It is known that pressure alone is not able to make shelf-stable any food s tored in room conditions. Acid products are normally spoiled by enzymes, an d low acid products are spoiled even by spore-forming micro-organisms. To o vercome the problem the role of heat in the process has been re-evaluated a nd the possibility of destroying at the same time spores and enzymes has be en found. This work compares the effect of sterilisation by High Pressure P rocessing (HPP) with one of the conventional retort processing techniques. Two batches of meat sauce were kept in room conditions over a year and thei r quality was evaluated periodically during the shelf life simulation. The physicochemical characteristics of the retorted ones showed a progressive a ppearance of the typical thermal damage. The High Pressure Sterilised sampl es on the contrary showed limited damage. related to the unavoidable pre-he ating. Their quality markers were constant over the shelf life evaluated pe riod.