Effect of high-pressure processing on characteristics of flexible packaging for foods and beverages

Abstract

High-pressure processing is an emerging food preservation technology that causes minimal product quality loss: Food packaged and high-pressure processed keep most of their nutritional qualities, in addition to extending their shelf life. However, the selection of packaging materials suitable for this technology becomes extremely important, since processing can cause changes in the visual aspects and in the physicochemical and mechanical properties of the materials, compromising the shelf life and safety of high-pressure processed foods somehow. Some studies have evaluated the effect of this technology on the properties and the migration and diffusion potential of intentional substances and of polymeric components in some flexible multilayer laminated packaging. Within this context, an important and relevant issue for industrial applications is knowing the possible effects of the parameters of high-pressure treatments, in low and high temperature, on the structure and morphology of materials that, in turn, can determine the relevant effects on the mechanical, barrier, and thermal properties and the migration and diffusion potential of intentional and non-intentional substances. Our study aims to make a literature review on the requirements of flexible packaging materials that can be used in high-pressure processing and the state of the art and the knowledge of the effects of different processing conditions on their properties.

Keywords: Barrier properties; Flexible packaging; High pressure processing; Mechanical properties; Migration potential; Morphological properties; Thermal properties.