Research Progress on the Application of High Pressure Carbon Dioxide in Meat Pasteurization and Preservation

Meat and meat products are of high nutritional values and are the main source of high-quality proteins for human beings. However, meat and meat products are susceptible to contaminate with various microorganisms during processing and storage, leading to meat spoilage and even foodborne diseases. High pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD) is a novel non-thermal processing technology. It can achieve significant antimicrobial effect under relatively mild pressure and temperature conditions. This paper summarized the inactivation mechanism of HPCD, and reviewed the application of HPCD in meat pasteurization and preservation in the past years. The effects of HPCD separately and its combination with other methods on antimicrobial activity, physiochemical characteristics, texture properties, and microbial stability of meat and meat products were also described in detail. In view of the existing problems, this paper also looked into the development prospect of HPCD technology.