Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) is investing in the safety of fresh food products by building Germany’s biggest center for high-pressure processing of food in the town of Quakenbrück, Lower Saxony. Dr. Bernd Althusmann, State Minister for Economic Affairs in Lower Saxony, and Christian Myland, CEO of the thyssenkrupp subsidiary Uhde High Pressure Technologies (www.thyssenkrupp-hpp.de), presented the project yesterday. Construction of the center in Quakenbrück’s business and innovation park will commence in early 2020. From the start of 2021, up to 26 metric tons of food products daily will undergo gentle and reliable preservation at the roughly 630 m2 facility, which is being built at a cost of around €3 million.
Dr. Bernd Althusmann, Minister of Economic Affairs, Labor, Transport and Digitization in Lower Saxony: “The cooperation between the DIL and thyssenkrupp in Quakenbrück creates the conditions for applying the groundbreaking HPP technology on an industrial scale quickly in Lower Saxony, helping the local food industry maintain its position as a technology leader in the production of safe and healthy food in the future.”
Nowadays, more and more people attach importance to a healthy diet with fresh, natural produce. Using thyssenkrupp’s high-pressure pasteurization (HPP) process, food can be preserved gently without the need for heat or chemical additives. High pressures of up to 6,000 bars eliminate contaminants such as pathogens, fungi and yeasts, significantly slowing and in some cases even preventing decay while retaining valuable ingredients.
Christian Myland, CEO of Uhde High Pressure Technologies: “Quakenbrück is one of the most important research and technology centers for the German food industry, making it the ideal location for our project. In the future, food manufacturers will be able to come to our service center to see the advantages of high-pressure processing for themselves. HPP technology will help them serve the rising demand for natural, additive-free products.”
The new service center will be able to process a wide range of food products including juices, purees, dairy products, meats, seafoods and many more. It will be built in the direct vicinity of the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL), with which thyssenkrupp cooperates on research and development. The DIL is one of Europe’s leading food industry research and development facilities. Cooperation will focus among other things on microbiological testing and the development of completely new long-lasting, clean and wholesome food products based on HPP technology.
“Cooperation with thyssenkrupp gives us the ideal opportunity to directly combine research and practical use of high-pressure preservation. This will be of immediate benefit to food manufacturers,” says Dr. Volker Heinz, director of DIL.