Hurdle technology is used in industrialized as well as in developing countries for the
gentle but effective preservation of foods. Hurdle technology was developed several years
ago as a new concept for the production of safe, stable, nutritious, tasty and economical
foods. Previously hurdle technology, i.e., a combination of preservation methods, was used
empirically without much knowledge of the governing principles. The intelligent application
of hurdle technology has become more prevalent now, because the principles of major
preservative factors for foods (e.g., temperature, pH, aw, Eh, competitive flora), and their
interactions, became better known. Recently, the influence of food preservation methods on
the physiology and behavior of microorganisms in foods, i.e. their homeostasis, metabolic
exhaustion, stress reactions, are taken into account, and the novel concept of multi-target
food preservation emerged. The present contribution reviews the concept of the potential
hurdles for foods, the hurdle effect, and the hurdle technology for the prospects of the future
goal of a multi-target preservation of foods