Product and Formulation
Product type, pH, water activity, solids, fat content, particulates, texture, viscosity, and sensory expectations affect whether HPP is appropriate and how the product may perform after processing.
APC reviews product category, formulation, packaging format, food-safety and refrigerated shelf-life objectives, scale, and timing before accepting an HPP or manufacturing program.
Product type, pH, water activity, solids, fat content, particulates, texture, viscosity, and sensory expectations affect whether HPP is appropriate and how the product may perform after processing.
HPP is performed after the product is sealed. The package must tolerate pressure, water exposure, closure stress, label behavior, and post-process handling without leaking, rupturing, or losing its intended function.
APC reviews batch size, facility capabilities, manufacturing requirements, packaging needs, cold-chain requirements, commercial timing, and production availability before accepting a program.
The technical pathway changes depending on whether the objective is pathogen reduction, refrigerated shelf-life extension, clean-label reformulation,
retailer compliance, recall-risk reduction, or validation for a regulated product.
High-moisture refrigerated products are often strong candidates for HPP review when the formulation and package can tolerate pressure.
Examples include:
HPP is widely used for refrigerated dips and sauces when brands want fresher flavor, longer refrigerated shelf life, and reduced dependence on synthetic preservatives.
Examples include:
Flexible pouches can perform well under HPP when the material, closure, fill level, headspace, viscosity, and seal system are compatible.
Examples include:
Prepared refrigerated meals and components may benefit from HPP when they are designed for sealed-package processing and refrigerated distribution.
Examples include:
Prepared proteins and seafood require careful regulatory, sensory, validation, and packaging review. APC evaluates these projects case by case.
Examples include:
Short-run, seasonal, and specialty products can be a good fit when packaging, refrigerated shelf life, production timing, and HPP requirements are reviewed early.
Examples include:
Bulk-bagged formats may be appropriate for soups, sauces, stews, curries, prepared sides, proteins, grains, spreads, and refrigerated components intended for foodservice, institutional use, or further processing.
Squeeze pouches are used for smooth or semi-smooth products such as fruit and vegetable blends, children’s foods, smoothies, breakfast products, sauces, soups, dips, and refrigerated concentrates.
APC evaluates refrigerated meals, bowls, casseroles, proteins in sauce, grain dishes, vegetable sides, and seasonal products that can be packaged before HPP.
After processing, APC can provide date coding, labeling, shrink sleeving, lidding, tamper banding, inspection, cartoning, palletizing, and pack-off.
Packaging is part of the HPP process, not an afterthought. The sealed product is placed in a pressure vessel, surrounded by cold water, and subjected to pressures as high as 87,000 psi. The package must compress and recover without losing seal integrity or allowing water to enter.
Successful HPP packaging generally needs to be flexible enough to tolerate pressure, durable enough to maintain the seal, resistant to water exposure, and suitable for refrigerated distribution after processing.
Packaging failure is one of the most common causes of a delayed HPP launch. Testing the package during development allows material, seal, closure, label, and headspace problems to be addressed before commercial production.
HPP is most useful when a product needs a validated food-safety step, longer refrigerated shelf life, clean-label preservation, or a quality-preserving alternative to heat. It is not the right process for every product.
The most useful product review considers formulation, packaging, food safety, refrigerated shelf life, regulatory category, and operating requirements together.
Include as much of the following as is available:
Many HPP launch problems are avoidable when formulation, packaging, and refrigerated shelf-life goals are evaluated before commercial production.
APC’s Innovation Center allows product-development teams to prepare a formulation, process it with commercial HPP equipment, and evaluate packaging, label performance, taste, texture, color, and other product-specific characteristics during the development process. APC can also coordinate with accredited laboratories when microbial shelf life, validation, or inoculation studies are required.
If the product is a fit, the work completed during development can carry forward into manufacturing, HPP, post-process assembly, and cold-chain planning.
Include the product type, formulation stage, package format, food-safety or refrigerated shelf-life objective, estimated volume, and timing.
