Application and Possibilities of Supercritical CO2 Extraction in Food Processing Industry: An Overview

The food industry is always looking for the best separation technology to obtain natural compounds of high purity, healthy products of excellent quality with several industrial applications. The conventional extraction process for those compounds has some limitations regarding the solvent toxicity, flammability and wastefulness. Research into energetically less costly technologies with respect to the environment is required. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a relatively new extraction process that has attracted great interest in many industries. Supercritical fluid properties are used selectively to extract specific components. This paper overviews the applications of supercritical fluid technology in food processing using carbon dioxide as the ideal supercritical fluid because of its non-flammable, non-toxic, non-polluting and recoverable characteristics. A summary of commercial applications and examples of recent developments illustrate the different possibilities that SFE has in industrial food processes.