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The high-pressure processing (HPP) food market is a $14 billion market that encompasses the technology used to sanitize, pasteurize or otherwise improve the safety and quality of food and beverages. 

How Does Traditional High-Pressure Processing Work?

Before HPP came on the scene, sanitizing food required either high heat or strong chemical preservatives. Both of these worked in terms of killing off harmful pathogens, but they would also adversely impact the flavor, texture, color, and nutritive value of the food. Even less desirable, they could also end up destroying certain nutrients — especially Vitamin C and other antioxidants that break down in heat, reducing the nutritional value of the food.

HPP, on the other hand, doesn’t change the texture or flavor of the food itself as much as heat or chemicals do. Plus, using pressure instead of heat also helps preserve the nutrient profile since it doesn’t break down vitamins, antioxidants, or other micronutrients in the way that high heat does. 

UST also allows manufacturers to achieve longer shelf life without relying on chemical preservatives — and in a market where consumers are increasingly seeking “clean label” foods and are generally more wary of any kind of additives, HPP makes it possible to appeal to evolving consumer demands.

Despite its benefits, existing HPP methods can’t overcome a key problem that liquid food and beverage manufacturers face: preventing emulsions from separating. With many foods, especially those that combine oil with water, the liquids don’t want to stay mixed as the product sits on the shelf, so the oil tends to separate and rise to the top.

How Does Pressure BioSciences’ UST Platform Overcome the HPP Shortcomings?

The UST Platform is a pressure-based system that might finally solve the problem of separation in emulsions, without using chemical processing like hydrogenation.

Where existing HPP technology relies on pressure alone, the UST platform combines ultra-high pressure levels with a patented NanoGap valve that controls flow rates in a novel way for better dispersion.  Adding this NanoGap valve-related shear technology (or the ability to physically break apart and disperse the oil drops) is a game-changer. 

Not only could the UST process make it possible to eliminate hydrogenated fats from store shelves, but it may also make previously difficult-to-absorb supplements like CBD oil or the powerful antioxidant Astaxanthin easier to infuse into beverages and liquid foods.  Importantly, the UST platform can also scale to very large manufacturing levels.

Essentially, UST-derived nanoemulsions not only protect against nutrient loss by significantly reducing exposure to heat, but they can also improve the bioavailability of those oil-based nutrients while reducing manufacturers’ dependence on chemical additives and chemical processing that often increase the cost of production while resulting in adverse health effects.

To make the UST platform more widely available in the food and beverage space, PBI partnered with The Ohio State University (OSU) to develop a commercial-scale model of the UST technology. Now on display at the world-renowned Advanced Food Technology Pilot Plant at Ohio State, the model system will soon be available to provide live demonstrations of the nanoemulsification process for industry companies from around the world. 

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.