Food preservation process design

AbstractPreservation processes for food products have evolved over time as more fundamental information about the factors influencing the processes have become available. Traditionally, thermal processes have been used for preservation of both shelf-stable and refrigerated foods. Recently, ultra-high pressure (UHP) and pulsed-electric-field (PEF) technologies have been considered as alternative processes. The objective of this paper is to discuss the integration of kinetic models for microbial inactivation and quality retention with appropriate models for transport phenomenon within the product structure, to predict the impacts of the processes on microbial populations and product quality attributes. As food safety concerns in refrigerated foods have increased, the amounts of kinetic data on microbial survivors during both traditional and alternative processes have increased. In addition, similar data for survival of pathogenic spores under UHP and PEF processes have been measured and published. During the same period of time, new physical properties data for foods have been published, along with predictive models for transport phenomenon within food products. Through the integration of appropriate kinetics models with models for transport phenomenon, the design of preservation processes has been improved and optimized