High-pressure processing—or cold pasteurization—can be a significant investment, but if your product is perceived as organic, high-end, minimally processed and nutritional, it may well be worth the investment.
High pressure processing—or high-pressure pasteurization (HPP)— as we know it got its start back in the 1940s when ASEA (which later become ABB) hired Baltzar von Platen to head a secret project, code-named “Quintus,” to produce synthetic diamonds using a process he invented, which combines heat and extremely high pressure. Quintus Technologies started making industrial equipment for the aerospace and medical industries, and began to research potential applications in the food and beverage industry.
According to Ed Williams of Quintus Technologies, early Quintus HPP research equipment included the QFP 6 to small commercial/pilot plant systems with the 35-L. In the late 1990s, Quintus offered under the Avure name the first true commercial food system with its vertical 215-L system, which is still in operation at several companies such as Hormel Foods, Wholly Guacamole, Perdue Farms and others. Currently, Quintus Technologies offers 150-L and 400-L machines.