ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes various process establishment procedures for aseptic processing of heterogeneous foods. The main problem is knowing the amount of heat that penetrates to the center of a food particle while that particle is continuously moving through an aseptic system. Processes for heterogeneous or particulate products become more complex due to the nature of the product. For aseptic products, the sterilization can be accomplished by the application of a high-temperature, short-time process, which has the potential to yield a very high quality product with minimal degradation of nutrients. Heterogenous foods potentially could be aseptically processed in a variety of systems. The conventional approach for aseptic processing of homogeneous products considers only the thermal lethality accumulated in the product as it passes through the hold tube. Whatever approach is selected, a mechanism would have to be established to verify that the model accurately predicts conditions within the aseptic system.
