Technologies Hidden Behind HMR Food

In recent years, the demand for the convenient option has significantly increased, especially for busy individuals or households. Fast food, such as hamburgers and hot chips used to be chosen by them as a time-saving solution, but still, they do not contain enough adequate nutrition that people have to consume. Here, Home Meal Replacement (HMR) food must be the perfect option that meets their needs, capturing both convenience and nutrition.

HMR food refers to Home Meal Replacement and may potentially be what we were looking for to replace home meals. HMR food is produced in a package form and is reheated before being consumed at home. It is designed for those who want to save time and energy for cooking. HMR food is capable of covering a wide range of food products. A lot of meals already have been processed and supplied in the form of HMR food these days. Several technologies are used to produce HMR food depending on the type of food.

First of all, high pressure is used as a method of processing HMR food. High-pressure processing, HPP, controls pressure to immobilize microorganisms and enzymes inside the food to maintain not only the general quality, but also its taste, texture, and nutrition similar to the homemade meal. In producing HMR food, the ingredients are subjected to 300 to 600 megapascals that are even heavier than a single American Buffalo. Such great pressure contributes to the eradication of pathogenic bacteria and yeasts that are likely to cause food decomposition or poisoning. The high pressure forced on them triggers an alteration in cell morphology which leads to biochemical reactions. During the process, the HMR food does not go under any thermal involvement or chemical modification, and HPP is safe from safety concerns.

Thermal processing is also a mechanism for producing HMR food which involves a specific amount of heat for removing harmful substances from products. The processing can be classified into several categories: sterilization, pasteurization, and retort. For sterilizing, the food is subjected to heat higher than 100 degrees Celsius to eliminate all the microorganisms. Then, the food is exposed to a comparatively lower temperature during pasteurization, killing remaining food pathogens. Retorting is done by forcing high pressure and high temperature to ensure that the food is completely cleaned.

Freeze drying is dehydrating the food in order of freeze and sublimation. During the process, a special machinery vacuum chamber is used. When a frozen product is placed in the vacuum chamber, the pressure inside the machine is lowered, and the temperature of the product proportionally increases, leading to the sublimation of frozen moisture of food to a gaseous state. Not only this but modified atmosphere packaging and sous vide is a frequently used packaging technique in the production of HMR food.

These technologies eliminate harmful organisms. They play an essential role in producing HMR food as they preserve the appearance and taste of food for a longer period. Although the food processing of HMR food has probable drawbacks to health such as containing artificial substances or certain nutrition excessively. Despite such potential, the perspective toward HMR products is promising in the field of the food industry, and they are permeating our daily lives.