### High-Pressure Treatment: A Scenario to Reduce Nitrite Content  
Because of the potentially harmful effect of nitrites, new technologies have been developed to decrease or eliminate nitrite contents in meat products. High-pressure treatment represents a promising alternative to the addition of nitrites in ham due to its preservation ability during the life of the product. The resistance of bacteria in the food medium, as well as the recovery of bacterial activity after pasteurization, are two major problems in meat products. It was shown in 1895 that starting from 400 MPa a high-pressure treatment could significantly slow down the growth recovery of microorganisms, such as weathering or pathogenic bacteria. It thus increases the shelf life of the products [40; 41; 42; 43]. Deactivation depends on many parameters, such as the type of pathogen, pressure level, process temperature, treatment time, and pH. For example, some studies have shown that a storage temperature lower than 6 \({}^{\circ}\)C, combined with a treatment of 600 MPa, can prevent the resumption of growth of Listeria monocytogenes in cooked ham [44; 45]. High-pressure treatment cannot always replace conventional techniques but may be a complementary treatment that increases the shelf life of meat products. Currently, meat products represent 30% of high-pressure products marketed [46], and high-pressure cooked ham is one of the first products marketed in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century [47].  
The addition of a high-pressure operating unit in ham production could have an effect on the environmental impact of the final product and especially on human health consequences. Therefore it seemed important to discriminate between the different processes and to evaluate the environmental and human health impacts of the life cycle of cooked ham. The environmental performance of high-pressure processing technology for food processing was compared with traditionally used food preservation technologies such as thermal pasteurization and modified atmosphere packaging [48]. Based on the methodology of life cycle analysis, involving in particular primary data on the flows and consumption of high-pressure processing (HPP) plants, the evaluation of the environmental performance of sliced Parma ham shows that high-pressure treatment appears to have a lower environmental impact in almost all impact categories than others processes. Indeed, packaging under a modified atmosphere requires a large amount of packaging materials and food gases, and thermal pasteurization a large amount of energy. This study aims to highlight the environmental benefits of high-pressure treatment, a well-known non-thermal technology, but still limited in terms of use. Further studies confirming its low impact on the environment are required and should be supplemented with human health analyzes.  
Figure 1: Overview of the risks and benefits associated with nitrite addition to processed meat.  
In this article, a combination of two innovative processes was evaluated, high-pressure processing and biopreservation with lactic acid bacteria, as recommended by [PERSON] et al. [49]. The objectives of this study were the following: (i) comparison of the potential environmental impact of ham production through two different technological paths: conventional production versus production with an innovative process (high pressure + biopreservation); (ii) development of a characterization factor to take into account nitrite contents in the human health impact and to help compare different technological processes.