Matís (Matvælarannsóknir Íslands) has succeeded in developing a method that kills bacteria in infected salmon in a short time. The high-pressure treatment method ensures safer salmon consumption and longer shelf life without adversely affecting color and texture. This is a new approach to hypertension treatment, which was developed in Germany a few years ago. With new technology, you can achieve the required results in less than 10 seconds instead of the previous 15 minutes.
With the new method, the bacterium Listeria can be eliminated in smoked salmon. Listeria is extremely rare in salmon but can cause infections in consumers who eat salmon that contains the bacterium.
The results of Matís' research show that high blood pressure needs to be 700-900 MPa to kill the bacterium. Hypertension has a small effect on the structure, color and texture of a product. The method can provide consumers with smoked salmon that has a longer shelf life and is free of Listeria and even free of other bacteria. Knowledge benefits will lead to further development and new uses of this new technology.
Traditional cold smoking of salmon is not enough to kill Listeria and can therefore be a problem for both producers and consumers. However, with improved hygiene and improved quality control, good results have been achieved, but to ensure that smoked salmon does not contain the bacteria, it is necessary to develop new technologies such as hypertension. Participants in the project were from Matís (formerly the Fisheries Research Institute and Keldnaholt Food Research).