Hipster pressure-assisted thermal sterilisation unveiled

The seminar on October 13 will discuss progress on a ‘mild’ conservation technique called Pressure Assisted Thermal Sterilisation (PATS), also known as High Pressure Thermal Sterilisation.

The objective of the Hipster project was to develop a commercially scalable PATS-system for producing high quality food with a longer shelf-life.

The project, coordinated by Silvia Garcia de la Torre from the National Centre for Technology and Food Safety (CNTA) in San Adrián (Navarra), in Spain, came to an end in August this year.

Further step towards practical application​

Over the past four years, significant progress is said to have been made in the development, validation and scale-up of this technology. According to the partners in this project, the PATS technology recently made a further step towards practical application.

At the seminar, organised by Marfo and TOP – two of the research consortium partners – the current status of the PATS technology will be described. It will focus mainly on its industrial relevance and benefits.

Marfo is a meal supplier to the airline and healthcare sectors, while TOP is a food process innovation specialist.

Both companies have been part of a consortium of nine European partners. Another partner was Teagasc, Ireland’s national government agency, which provides research, advice and training to the Irish agri-food sector.