(Food-Beverage-News.Com, January 03, 2017 ) Half a decade ago, consumers seems to be gushing for good quality food products that has a high shelf life. Companies were actively looking for methods and equipment that can help foods to retain their natural flavor even after long shelf life of preservation. High pressure processing equipment is one such cutting-edge innovation. High pressure processing is a non-thermal preservation and pasteurization process that increases the shelf life of food, while retaining the original quality of food products. Unlike most conventional food processing system, this method accomplishes high hydrostatic pressure of 100 to 1000 MPa to process food products. It is due to its minimal negative effect that high pressure processing market (HPP) is finding great prominence globally. This billion dollar industry is anticipated to witness strong growth worldwide during the forecast period, 2015–2025.
Rising concern for food safety along with increasing demand for process food that contains active ingredients is expected to fuel the overall high pressure processing market. High liquid containing foods are on upper edge. HPP extends the shelf life of foods by two to three folds when compared to non-pasteurized foods. However, budget restraints and significant heavy cost is expected to be a major challenge for this industry. To tackle these challenges some of the leading manufacturers are performing innovation to cut down the cost at a significant rate. Also, HPP is mostly preferred for foods containing high acids. It cannot be or used rarely for stabilizing foods containing low-acids.
High pressure processing market is broadly classified on the basis of equipment types, production size and end-use applications. Equipment such as batch processing and semi-continuous processing are available depending upon the size of production including low scaled to medium and high scale production capacities. Large scale production is normally seen in developed economies, while small and mid-scale are gaining prominence in developing economies.
On the basis of applications, HPP market is broadly segmented into juices and beverages, vegetable products, meat products and seafood products. Juices and beverages along with meat products covers the majority of HPP applications. HPP equipment in vegetable products, though has a relatively low presence, is gaining wide prominence among food processing industries and is anticipated to witness above average growth rate during the forecast period, 2016 - 2026.
High pressure processing equipment are in high demand in developed economies such as North America, Japan and Europe, however, market is gaining prominence in Asia Pacific and Latin America. The market is mainly consolidated in United States (U.S.), Europe and Japan. HPP in North America is widely used for processing of juices and beverages followed by seafood products and meat products and vegetable products. The trend is however different in Asia Pacific where consumption HPP is widely used for meat products and seafood products rather than juice products. HPP market is expected to witness significant growth in North America and Europe.
Some of the key market players in high pressure processing market are Avure Technologies, Hiperbaric, Hormel Foods Corporation, Hain Celestial Group and American Pasteurization Company.
