This sector focuses on food processing and preservation technologies and their impact on food safety and quality. These technologies include heat treatment, fermentation, dehydration, condensation, preservation under refrigeration and freezing. Significant research is conducted on the application of the new non-thermal technologies such as High Hydrostatic Pressure (with a laboratory scale equipment installed in ITAP), Pulsed Electric Fields, Cold Plasma, Osmotic Dehydration and Ozonation for the production of high quality and long shelf-life food products. All the above reactions are controlled by factors such as temperature, water activity and type of packaging of the food, pH and partial gas pressure of controlled atmosphere packaging, pressure, voltage and frequency, etc., while their mathematical description using appropriate equations allows for the prediction and optimization of food sustainability based on storage and handling conditions. ITAP has the know-how to support research and development of new food products selecting the appropriate conventional or new technology for each product.
