Many Americans get a substantial amount of dietary calories not from the food they eat, but from the beverages they drink. Yet many of these beverages, even those labeled as all-natural or healthy, are free of nutritional value and simply provide empty calories. High pressure pasteurization (HPP) is an emerging beverage pasteurization method that has many benefits compared to the traditional methods, and which can help your laboratory produce a safe and nutritionally sound beverage. Keep reading for the reasons you should use HPP for your beverage preparations.
- Inhibition of Harmful Pathogen Growth
There are two central reasons for subjecting any food or beverage to pasteurization or homogenization: 1) Its ability to kill spoilage organisms, including yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and 2) Its ability to improve food safety by killing pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria. (1)
- Maintenance of Nutrition & Flavor
Food and beverage corporations that do not use HPP to destroy harmful pathogens likely use traditional thermal pasteurization instead. The key difference between these is that the traditional method uses heat, while HPP uses pressure. The heat method has been shown to damage and/or destroy key nutrients that are naturally found in these beverages, and is a central motivator for industry leaders to use HPP instead. HPP has been shown to preserve the nutritional value of beverages while also maintaining natural flavors, an achievement that no other process can claim.
- Wider Range of Ingredients
HPP’s ability to increase safety while simultaneously maintaining nutrient quality is a key factor to consider when determining beverage ingredients. Beverages that are destined for thermal pasteurization may not include ingredients whose quality nutrients will be cooked out, as it would be a waste of money and resources. However, HPP-treated beverages can include ingredients that may not have previously been considered for pasteurized beverages. An additional benefit to using more ingredients is the decreased need for artificial ingredients, whether for flavor or nutritional purposes.
- Improved Shelf Life
Fruit juice is one of the most popular beverages in America, and when purchased fresh, must be consumed within days. In contrast, fruit juices that have undergone HPP have a shelf life of up to 30 days, as is the case with Suja Life juices. As a general rule of thumb, HPP can improve shelf life by two- to three-fold compared with a non-pasteurized product. In addition, products that are exposed to thermal pasteurization oftentimes require freezing as a preservation method. Yet HPP allows those same products to remain on the shelf for extended periods of time without spoiling. (2)
Pion's BEE Brand Homogenizers for High Pressure Pasteurization
When your laboratory decides to use HPP as your beverage preparation method, one of the first items on the agenda will be to acquire appropriate equipment. Pion is internationally renowned among laboratory scientists and researchers for its innovative technology. Their high pressure processing/pasteurization equipment helps improve color and flavor retention, shelf life, and texture. Importantly, it supports a growing demand for organic and preservative-free products, as naturally-occurring vitamins and antioxidants remain in food.
Pion's BEE brand pilot scale high pressure processing HPP system is designed for enhanced experimentation. This means that the scientist can easily adjust hold time through a simple series of valves while maintaining maximum pressure and continuous flow.
Learn more about how Pion can support your beverage’s HPP dreams here!
