Ready-to-eat (RTE) protein producers are more frequently being asked to deliver clean-label products by their retail, club-store and foodservice customers. The demand is easily supplied by removing bacteriocins commonly used in food production today. The “catch” is, customers still demand the same (or better) shelf life, and removing these preservatives negatively impacts it.
Enter high-pressure processing (HPP). This cold pasteurization technology is gaining a foothold as a reliable food-preservation technology. Millions of pounds of RTE meats are pasteurized with high pressure each week. Producers and third-party HPP tolling centers around the country have purchased the technology, are leveraging HPP’s benefits for their existing customers and are finding new market opportunities.