ABSTRACT
This chapter provides rigorous analysis of thermal sterilization of liquid food contained in a three-dimensional pouch and aims to predict transient temperature, velocity profiles and concentrations of bacteria and vitamin C profiles in the pouch as heating progresses. In natural convection heating, the velocity in the momentum equations is coupled with the temperature in the energy equation because movement of fluid is solely due to buoyancy force. Because of this coupling, the energy equation needs to be solved simultaneously with the momentum equations. G. Scott and P. Richardson discussed the mathematical modeling techniques of computational fluid dynamics which can be used to predict the flow behavior of fluid food. Strict regulations and procedures are established by government agencies for thermal processing of low-acid canned foods because of widespread public health concerns about anaerobic Clostridium botulinum, a spore-forming microorganism that produces a toxin deadly to humans, even in very small amounts.
