Food Waste Management and Value-added Products

ABSTRACT: Optimization of thermal treatments has been proven to enhance the quality of food products, especially when operated together with a validation method that confirms the safety of the processing operations. Recent developments in the understanding and application of pasteurization treatments have allowed this area to grow at a rapid rate. UK and European consumers now have a wide variety of high-quality pasteurized foods to choose from in the retail and catering markets. Food producers have used this to their advantage by converting processing operations from severe treatments such as sterilization to milder ones that can be categorized under the pasteurization umbrella. This has increased food product quality and added value to existing products. Two examples will be given, both of which utilized a novel validation method based on time-temperature integrators to provide process safety data that were difficult to obtain by alternative methods. The first was in applying a novel processing technology, ohmic heating, to produce higher-quality fruit products when compared with traditional processing methods. The second was in the production of high-quality sous vide ready meals supplied chilled or frozen to the catering sector. These developments in technology and validation have been made possible by work at CCFRA that has taken the pasteurized foods sector forward. CCFRA has been active in pasteurization research for many years and has produced industry guideline documents on, for example, pasteurization treatments and sous vide processing. Microbiological research on the growth and death of target microorganisms has been linked with processing, hygiene, and validation research, which provided the underpinning science for these guidelines. Food manufacturers work closely with CCFRA to apply their pasteurization processes in order to produce high-quality value-added products.