High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) has been utilized as a tool of food processing. Microbiological studies for the safety of HHP-processed foods have been intensively carried out. It is pointed out that during the storage of HPP-processed foods spore-forming and the other bacteria can recover and outgrow. Therefore, it is important to verify whether bacteria inactivated by HHP treatment are dead or alive and whether they can recover before and after consumption. However, the verifications are not easy because there is no consensus on the definition of bacterial death and bacterial recovery after HHP treatment has not sufficiently studied. In order to bring HHP-processed foods as pasteurized foods into discussion for international standards, scientific data ensuring food safety will be indispensable. What to be required will be process conditions for bacterial death based on agreed-upon method to verify the death.