Abstract
Clean-label foods have gained a lot of attention since it meets consumers' interests in minimally processed food having a minimal number of ingredients and free from artificial additives. Increased interest in premium quality food products stimulated the integration of high-pressure technologies in food processing compared to conventional thermal processing. While commercial thermal pasteurization is effective in preserving beverages; high pressure-based processing technologies ensure a substantial decrease in microorganisms and spoilage enzymes as well as ensuring minimal impact on the nutrients content and sensory quality. Therefore, this article reviews the potential of high-pressure processing, high-pressure homogenization, ultrahigh-pressure homogenization, highpressure carbon dioxide/supercritical carbon dioxide, and their updated applications to better preserve the quality of fruit juices and beverages. Pressure-based technologies can assist in reducing the number of ingredients by eliminating the need for certain additives for product stability and preservatives used for food safety and shelflife extension. Available data highlight important limitations for clean-label food production, represented by the need to establish pressure optimization, microbiological and safe handling in the absence and/or in the presence of a low level of synthetic preservatives. More research is needed for reliable process validation with a focus on process characterization (temperature fields, thermal heterogeneity, and residence time distributions) and sterilization indicators, or mixtures thereof, to implement this promising technology.