High pressure and pasteurization effect on duck foie gras

The effects of combined high pressure (300 and 400 MPa) and low temperature (50°C) treatments on the microbial contamination of duck foie gras samples were compared with those of classical thermal pasteurization (85°C at the coldest point). A multilayer packaging film (PE/PA/PE) was selected from two films commonly used for these types of food, by preliminary tests showing its ability to limit microbiological development in such samples. In each experiment, microbiological contamination was analysed on treated and untreated samples, and results were systematically compared with those obtained from a classically pasteurized sample of the same liver. A pasteurization type effect (drastic reduction of vegetative mesophilic and psychrophilic contaminations, destruction of coliforms and of Staphylococcus aureus ) was obtained at this temperature with samples pressurized at 400 MPa for at least 10 min.