Ultra high pressure homogenization of almond milk: Physico-chemical and physiological effects

Ultra high pressure homogenization (UHPH) of food is a processing technology to improve food safety and shelf life. However, despite very short treatment duration UHPH may lead to changes in chemical and physico-chemical properties including formation of submicro-/nano-particles. This may affect the physiological or toxicological properties of the treated food. Here, we treated raw almond milk (AMr) with UHPH at 350 MPa and 85 °C (AMuhph), known able to inactivate food relevant microorganisms. UHPH-treatment led to about a threefold increase of the mean particle size. There was a nearly complete loss of antigenicity investigated by ELISA for determination of traces of almond proteins. The content of vitamins B1 and B2 remained unchanged, while free exposed sulfhydryl groups decreased. Despite of observed modifications, UHPH-treatment of almond milk did not cause any changes in cyto- or genotoxic effects and antigenotoxic capability of protecting intestinal cells against iron induced DNA damage in vitro.