ABSTRACT
One of the potential advantages of aseptic processing of particulate foods is the minimum loss of nutrients and overall quality improvement due to the use of a high temperature, short time processing technique. To design a process that ensures the commercial sterility of processed foods, thermal process calculations require accurate time-temperature data. Due to difficulties in measuring the temperature of a particle as it moves through the heat exchanger and holding tube sections of an aseptic processing system, the particle center temperatures are usually predicted by mathematical modeling. Data on residence time distribution (RTD) and associated
fluid-to-particle heat transfer coefficient (h
) in a continuous flow system are necessary in such models (Dignan et al., 1989). Numerous studies have been carried out to evaluate h
under a wide range of experimental conditions simulating some aspects of aseptic processing. Several of these studies have made use of particles fixed in a tube for gathering time-temperature data, while others have used novel approaches to monitor transient temperatures of moving particles.
