PULLMAN, WA - In next few years, you can look forward to a greater variety of prepared foods that don’t need refrigeration at the grocery store. The Food and Drug Administration has approved an alternative to the traditional canning process. It was developed at Washington State University. Correspondent Tom Banse explains.

Conventional canned foods typically spend an hour or two in an industrial pressure cooker. That changes product taste, usually not for the better. Washington State University Professor Juming Tang developed an alternative that takes just 8 minutes. Essentially, it combines the pressure cooker with microwave energy.

Juming Tang: “This is just like you use at home, a domestic microwave oven, very similar. It is a heat process. We do not create any chemicals or any residues that are harmful to humans.”

Professor Tang says the FDA initially approved the process for mashed potatoes. Future applications could include chicken breast, dumplings, and salmon fillets in shelf-stable plastic trays. The Defense Department was the biggest sponsor of the technology development in hopes of improving the taste of soldiers’ field rations.

Copyright 2009 KUOW

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