Research activities on supercritical fluid science in food biotechnology

This article serves as an overview, introducing the currently popular area of supercritical fluids and their uses in food biotechnology. Within each application, and wherever possible, the basic principles of the technique, as well as a description of the history, instrumentation, methodology, uses, problems encountered, and advantages over the traditional, non-supercritical methods are given. Most current commercial application of the supercritical extraction involve biologically-produced materials; the technique may be particularly relevant to the extraction of biological compounds in cases where there is a requirement for low-temperature processing, high mass-transfer rates, and negligible carrying over of the solvent into the final product. Special applications to food processing include the decaffeination of green coffee beans, the production of hops extracts, the recovery of aromas and flavors from herbs and spices, the extraction and fractionation of edible oils, and the removal of contaminants, among others. New advances, in which the extraction is combined with reaction or crystallization steps, may further increase the attractiveness of supercritical fluids in the bioprocess industries. To develop and establish a novel and effective alternative to heating treatment, the lethal action of high hydrostatic pressure CO(2) on microorganisms, with none or only a minimal heating process, has recently received a great deal of attention.