###### Abstract  
V vegetative pathogens actively grow in foods, metabolizing and dividing their cells. They have consequently become a focus of concern for the food industry, food regulators and food control agencies. Although much has been done by the food industry and food regulatory agencies, foodborne outbreaks are still reported globally, causing illnesses, hospitalizations, and in certain cases, deaths, together with product recalls and subsequent economic losses. Major bacterial infections from raw and processed foods are caused by _Escherichia coli_ serotype O157:H7, _Salmonella enteritidis_, and _Listeria monocytogenes_. High pressure processing (HPP) (also referred to as high hydrostatic pressure, HHP) is a non-thermal pasteurization technology that relies on very high pressures (400-600 MPa) to inactivate pathogens, instead of heat, thus causing less negative impact in the food nutrients and quality. HPP can be used to preserve foods, instead of chemical food additives. In this study, a review of the effect of HPP treatments on major vegetative bacteria in specific foods was carried out. HPP at 600 MPa, commonly used by the food industry, can achieve the recommended 5-8-log reductions in _E. coli_, _S. enteritidis_, _L. monocytogenes_, and _Vibrio_. _Staphylococcus aureus_ presented the highest resistance to HPP among the foodborne vegetative pathogens investigated, followed by _E. coli_. More susceptible _L. monocytogenes_ and _Salmonella_ spp. bacteria were reduced by 6 logs at pressures within 500-600 MPa. _Vibrio_ spp. (e.g., raw oysters), _Campylobacter jejuni_, _Yersinia enterocoltica_, _Citrobacter freundii_ and _Aeromonas hydrophilla_ generally required lower pressures (300-400 MPa) for inactivation. Bacterial species and strain, as well as the food itself, with a characteristic composition, affect the microbial inactivation. This review demonstrates that HPP is a safe pasteurization technology, which is able to achieve at least 5-log reduction in major food bacterial pathogens, without the application of heat. high hydrostatic pressure (HHP); HPP; cold pasteurization; pascalization; microbial inactivation; pathogen inactivation; non-thermal; vegetative; bacteria; strain; meat; milk; dairy +
Footnote †: journal: _Sciences_  
reported to be stored at ambient temperatures for up to months (EFSA, 2022) [5]. HPP operates in batch, similar to canned foods in retort processing. During HPP treatment, microorganisms naturally present in raw foods are inactivated with extremely high pressures in the range of 400 to 600 MPa, a thousand times higher than the atmospheric pressure of 0.1013 MPa, without the application of heat to the food. Thus, this process is classified as non-thermal, and HPP foods are referred to as cold-pasteurized foods, with demonstrated superiority in terms of overall flavor and higher contents of health-related food components (e.g., vitamins, antioxidants) ([PERSON] and [PERSON], 2018; [PERSON] and [PERSON], 2016; [PERSON] et al., 2017; [PERSON] et al., 2018; [PERSON] and [PERSON], 2018) [6; 7; 8; 9; 10]. These are often thermolabile, similar to other food components associated with natural and fresh-like aroma and flavor sensory properties of raw unprocessed foods ([PERSON], 2018; [PERSON] et al., 2022; [PERSON] et al., 2000) [11; 12; 13]. Briefly, vacuum-packed food in a flexible film/bottle is placed into a HPP treatment chamber, which is subsequently filled with water, as this is the medium used to transfer the pressure simultaneously and uniformly to all points of the food (isostatic pressure) during HPP treatment (Figure 1). This is a major advantage of HPP pasteurized foods compared to foods pasteurized with conventional thermal processes. Thus, there is no pressure profile inside the HPP food, and no need to determine the package cold point, as opposed to pre-packed sterilized foods. The technology is also named high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), as water (room temperature or pre-cooled) is used as the medium to transfer the pressure to the food.