Non-thermal shelf-life extension of fresh hummus by high hydrostatic pressure and refrigerated storage

Consumers are interested in fresher and minimally processed ready-to-eat foods (RTE), therefore this work aimed to investigate the efficacy of High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing (HHP) of 600MPa for 6 min against Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in fresh hummus samples, and to study the significance of the combined treatment of HHP and refrigeration on extending shelf life of hummus samples up to 52 weeks. Results showed that a treatment of HHP at 600 MPa for 6 min was able to achieve more than 5 log reduction of the tested pathogens, and about 4 log for aerobic plate count (APC) and Yeast and Mold (YM). Moreover, pathogens remained undetectable during the period of refrigerated storage for 1 year, while APC and YM were increased to log 2.32 and < 1 log, respectively. After 52 weeks of refrigerated storage, HHP treated samples showed no significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences in respect to sensorial properties of hummus samples and remained microbiologically within the “High quality” standards according to the microbiological criteria of RTE foods.