A review on instant controlled pressure drop technology – a strategic tool for extraction of bioactive compounds

Summary Bioactive compounds are the naturally derived extra‐nutritional components with diversified arrangement and functionality, which makes them a promising source for the fabrication of functional foods, nutraceuticals and food additives. Extraction of these compounds by traditional techniques is a cumbersome process, which yields product with compromised quality and poor efficiency besides huge investment in terms of energy and time. This urges an acute need to develop an improved method that ensures the nutritional and organoleptic quality of these bioactive components is better preserved. Instant controlled pressure drop is one such novel and sustainable technique that allows the raw materials to be treated at high pressure and temperature first and latterly followed by an abrupt pressure drop towards a vacuum. The induced thermo‐mechanical effects in the sample ensure boost in availability and extractability of high‐value bioactive compounds. This technique has found numerous applications in food industry such as a pre‐treatment in drying and freezing of food product, enhanced extraction of bioactive compounds and to improve the colour, odour and texture quality of a variety of food products. This review article will emphasise on all these aspects of instant controlled pressure drop technology. Instant controlled pressure drop is a novel and sustainable technique that allows the raw materials to be treated in an extraction vessel at high pressure and temperature first and latterly followed by an abrupt pressure drop towards a vacuum. The induced thermo‐mechanical effects in the sample ensures boost in availability and extractability of high‐value bioactive compounds. This technique has found numerous applications in food industry such as a pre‐treatment in drying and freezing of food product, enhanced extraction of essential oils and to improve the colour, odour, and texture quality of a variety of food products. This review article will emphasize on all these aspects of instant controlled pressure drop technology.