A review on recent development in non-conventional food sterilization technologies

• This review has shown that interest is growing in the use of alternative sterilization technologies.
• PEF, HPP, UV, ultrasound and high pressure homogenization could be used in combination with thermal treatment.
• The objective of using these combined treatments is to lower sterilization temperature.
• Cold plasma could also be used for in-package sterilization.

Sterilization is one of the most effective food preservation methods. Thermal sterilization technologies have been widely employed in food industry since they are well developed and require low investment cost. Demands of consumers for higher quality and fresh tasting products are growing rapidly. Recently, non-conventional sterilization technologies have gained significant attention, since they have the potential to provide products with a better quality, fresh-like taste, and may require lower energy to operate. However, none of these technologies have been commercialized yet. This review addresses the efforts, which have been made in the literature to lower sterilization temperature using combination of thermal and one of the non-thermal processing technologies, such as high pressure, UV, pulsed light, ultrasonic, pulsed electric field, irradiation, and cold plasma.