Cornell’s high-pressure processor to set new safety standards
Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has installed a new high-pressure food processor, becoming the nation’s first commercial-scale validation facility for a technology that kills foodborne pathogens and extends shelf life—without heat or chemical preservatives—for fresh, ready-to-eat foods.
Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has installed a new high-pressure food processor, becoming the nation’s first commercial-scale validation facility for a technology that kills foodborne pathogens and extends shelf life—without heat or chemical preservatives—for fresh, ready-to-eat foods. The Hiperbaric 55 high-pressure food processor at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, N.Y., will set food safety standards for the increasingly popular high-pressure processing (HPP) favored by companies for its ability to retain fresh quality attributes in food while inactivating spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms.
Randy Worobo, Cornell food science professor, is overseeing the new validation center that houses the HPP unit. The validation center is part of the Institute for Food Safety at Cornell University, established in 2015 with $2 million in state funding to harness Cornell’s strengths in food safety research and training to combat foodborne illness.
The processor was financed through public and private grants, including $600,000 from New York state and contributions from private companies Wegmans, LiDestri, Suja, and the unit’s manufacturer, Hiperbaric. The commercial-grade processor at Cornell is the first in the United States installed within a Biohazard Level 2 facility, which means researchers will be able to introduce pathogens to foods and test how well the pressure system kills them. That’s important for companies in dealing with regulatory agencies tasked with ensuring food safety.
“Because high-pressure processing is such a new technology, the federal regulatory agencies are not that familiar with it, and what they expect is for companies to have validation studies that actually demonstrate that under this pressure, for this time, with this food, that you get a consistent pathogen reduction that meets regulatory guidelines,” said Worobo. “Cornell is setting the standards that companies will use to bring fresh, high-quality foods to market in a safe way.”
In addition to testing samples for individual companies, Worobo said Cornell researchers will work to develop best processing recommendations for food manufacturers.