Jeff Williams told us the developments are being looked at now with a timeline of products in the next few years.
“We believe you’ll continue to see the annual year on year growth such as it has been,” he said during the Anuga FoodTec trade show in Cologne.
“There will be new categories of applications and products coming out in the next few years.
“Of course, we can’t discuss that right now, but the fundamental research and food science and microbiology work is going on now that will open up whole new avenues for HPP that nobody is even discussing today.”
HPP uses high pressures, rather than heat or chemicals, to preserve foods and beverages.
Italian example
Williams said Italy is an example of where HPP capacity is allowing them to expand and participate in an export market.
“New US regulation requires various meat products to be HPP treated to be imported into the US,” he said.
“So companies in Italy have taken it upon themselves to put the capacity in and they have been certified to HPP the different products, it gives them a new export market to the US.
“From a US perspective the retailers are looking for premium products to import from Europe, South America or elsewhere, the stores like premium imported products that deliver higher retail margins for them.”
HPP equipment is moving from the smaller units to the large, and by large it’s not necessarily how big the machine is, but how much throughput it produces, said Williams.
“The newer technologies are able to produce at the levels that the large juice, meat, salsa or other manufacturers can use,” he said.
“While the machines run on an intermittent or batch process the volumes they are able to produce are now reaching the speeds that align with typical continuous process lines in the juice or meat and cutting industries.
“We talk about how much a machine can produce, so for example, our newest model produces upwards of 60m pounds a year. So that lines up with if a meat producer has a number of cutting or slicing lines they’re able to feed a number of lines through one machine now versus having to buy a lot of smaller machines.”
HPP by sector
Williams said a number of markets for HPP were growing ‘nicely’.
“There’s a lot of publicity and PR around the beverage and juice side, there’s a lot of new juices coming on the market for health and wellness so they get a lot of attention,” he said.
“The protein or meat segments in the market are still the largest just because of the install base machinery and the large producers there.
“We’re also seeing significant growth in dips and sauces, things like hummus, guacamole, salsa and those categories continue to grow year on year.
“We see growth of HPP in every marketplace, the relative growth rates just vary by the economic conditions in a given region or country.
“The US with the largest install base of HPP capacity tends to grow quicker just because it has the largest install base but around the world you’re seeing every region with growing capacities.”