New technologies for obtaining healthy foods

Diseases associated with inadequate eating patterns continue to expand in a large part of the population. In order to reduce this social damage, a concept of preventive health is currently being gradually adopted, which provides an excellent environment for the development of healthy foods. This panorama has favored the investigation of the employ of new technologies, such as pulsed electric field (PEF), ultrasound (US), microwave (MW), high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), and supercritical fluids (SCF), in the food sector because of their potential application in improving the health benefits of food products. This chapter examines the main foundations of the new technologies most used in the development of new healthy food, in addition to collecting the current progress in the investigation of the use of PEF, US, MW, HHP, and SCF in the elaboration of foods free of antinutrients and synthetic additives, salt-reduced products, fortified foods, probiotic nourishments, and foods rich in resistant starch.