Superchilling of organic food. Part 1: Concept, State-of-the-art and Potential for small scale implementation

Summary

The present report is a part of the ERA-NET project SusOrganic: Development of quality standards and optimised processing methods for organic produce. The superchilling concept and the state-of-art of the technology are summarized with focus on potential implementation for small scale organic production.
Production of processed organic food is mostly carried out by small and medium enterprises in demanding, competitive market conditions due to competition from highly cost-efficient large scale producers of conventional products and producers of locally grown food without certification requirements. The superchilling concept can be applied for organic meat and fish products, hereby helping the producer to supply the market with high-quality organic products. The extended shelf life of superchilled products will be beneficial during storage with respect to production and seasonal variations and transportation in order to reach new and far-distant markets. Strict control of the chilling process as well as storage temperature and time, is necessary in order to apply the concept. For these reasons, it might be difficult to apply superchilling towards the end of the cold chain at the retailer or consumer without significant alterations to the cold chain.