ABSTRACT
Thermal tolerance of microorganisms is highly variable. It
differs between strains or even serotypes, depends on the
process conditions during heating (menstruum, heating
curve, etc.), is influenced by the microenvironment and
even depends on the individual “history” of the population.
This makes optimization of pasteurization and sterilization
time-temperature processes extremely difficult, which is
why most of the processes used today include a huge safety
margin.
