ABSTRACT
Nomenclature.........................................................................................................480 Acknowledgments..................................................................................................481 References..............................................................................................................481
Canning is one of the most effective means of food preservation, and it is used to preserve a large part of our food supply. Despite significant advances in food processing operations involving the use of thermal energy, conventional thermal sterilization is still common. Thermal sterilization is the process of heating at a specified temperature/time to eliminate pathogenic spores from the food product. In the canning industry, this process usually involves the application of steam to heat the food in the can to a given temperature; the can is then held at that temperature for a period sufficient to kill the microorganisms. The sterilization process not only extends the shelf life of the food, but also affects its nutritional and sensory quality. One of the challenges to the food canning industry is to minimize these quality losses, meanwhile providing an adequate process to achieve the desired degree of sterility. The optimization of such a process is possible because of the strong temperature dependence of bacterial spore inactivation as compared to the rate of quality destruction, sensory as well as nutritional
