Boosting Hawaiʻi's food exports and decreasing our reliance on imports is the goal of the Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center.
HPR visited the center in October, months after it opened its doors. The center held Hawaiʻi's first-ever high-pressure processing summit last week — a day packed with speakers and seminars meant to drum up interest in the center’s state-of-the-art Hiperbaric chamber.
The Hiperbaric machine is a way to extend the shelf life of food products. However, it has yet to be used commercially. Instead, facility managers say that it is sized for research and development. The machine whirred into action to perform demonstrations in real time during the summit.
Hailey Zhou, the product development manager at the center, spoke with HPR about the vision for the technology — and the foods she’s most excited to preserve with high-pressure processing.
HPR also spoke to Micah Richards, who runs Mauka Meats and was excited about the potential to use the technology for his business. He said that shelf-life stability is critical for the suppliers and distributors that want to stock his products.
Interested groups can begin testing out the Hiperbaric chamber at the Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center next month.
This story aired on The Conversation on July 23, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
