Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the analysis of high pressure processing of food; A review

Abstract

Non-thermal processing of food using high pressure is an advance technology and it can be applied to a large number of food products using batch or continuous treatment units. It is a non-thermal pasteurization sterilization of food by the application of high pressure of the order of thousands of atmospheres. The process retains the food quality of freshness and its nutrient content such as vitamins. HPP of foods is an emerging technology of increasing interest because it permits microbial inactivation at low or moderate temperatures. Extensive experimental works have been conducted on this process during the last decade. However, limited computational analysis of the HPP process is available in the literature. Most of the theoretical models developed assume a uniform temperature throughout the treatment chamber, which can be true only for small treatment HPP units. These models cannot be used for the scale up of the existing laboratory size HPP units to an industrial size.

The temperature of the treatment chamber will be function of position and time and is influenced by both heat generation due to compression and external heat transfer. The development of such computation is very important, as experimental testing of every single food at different operating condition can be very time consuming.