In this study the action of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) on compression heating of liquid foods and pressure transmitting fluids, inactivation of Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua in different food media (milk and fruit juices), pulsed pressure and high pressure carbon dioxide treatments was investigated. The experimental results in this study allowed pointing out some important results: (i) The thermal effects of compression should be taken into account when HHP pasteurization processes are developed. Initial temperature of the food product and compression rate should carefully be selected in order to compensate the compression heating / (ii) The HHP inactivation kinetics need not follow traditional first-order kinetics, hence alternative inactivation models are ought to be found. Weibull model can be used for HHP inactivation kinetics of microorganisms / (iii) The pulsed pressure treatment could be an alternative to continuous HHP, but optimization should be done between the pulse holding time, the number of pulses and the pressure level to reach the desirable number of log-reduction of microorganisms (E. coli and L. innocua) compatible with an industrial application / (iv) The storage duration and storage temperature after HHP treatment should carefully be optimized to increase the safety of HHP treated fruit juices since the growth of injured microorganisms can be avoided during storage / (v) The high pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD) treatment in combination with pulsed pressure can be an efficient way to inactivate the microorganisms in skim milk and to reduce the maximum pressure level for the desired log-reduction.