SAFE ICE: Low-temperature pressure processing of foods: Safety and quality aspects, process parameters and consumer acceptance

The SAFE ICE project, supported by the European Commission, addresses and overcomes specific scientific and technological hurdles to make an informed judgment on the relevance of food related effects of High-Pressure in the Low-Temperature (HPLT) domain as well as to realize and to deliver their full benefits to the end users. Such hurdles include the lack of systematic data, and a limited understanding related to the mechanisms involved in phase transitions under pressure at subzero temperatures. The project involves seven partners, bringing together academic and research centres with food industry and equipment manufacturing parties. The main findings of the research carried out in the frame of the project are: the systematic compilation of thermophysical properties of water, aqueous model solutions and model foods to be applied in mathematical models able to reproduce and predict freezing and thawing time profiles at high pressure; the comprehension of the kinetics of phase transition phenomena at HP, including the definition of metastable phases; a key to define critical processing parameters to obtain optimized freezing and thawing paths; the study of the effect of HPLT on key food spoilage enzymes and on microorganisms; the study of consumer acceptance of the technology; the evaluation of the impact of SAFE ICE processes on food quality related parameters and the development of prototypes (HPLT microscopic cell and HPLT differential thermal analysis cell) and process and products concepts for industrial development of SAFE ICE processes.