Author
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CRAIG, JAMES - RETIRED ARS EMPLOYEE |
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KOZEMPEL, MICHAEL |
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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 10/7/2004 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Traditional heat treatment of foods to reduce the presence of microbial contamination ("Pasteurization") has been highly effective for many decades. However, that same heat treatment frequently requires contact with surfaces at higher temperatures, and itself can be responsible for sensory and nutritional quality degradation. A substantial effort has been underway to find alternative process technologies to achieve the same safe food, but without the resultant thermal damage. A number of these technologies are in development, or in early stages of commercial application. Most are appropriate for niche applications, such as surface treatment, treating continuous media or functionally transparent fluids. At this point, some are infeasible for commercial process operations, or are too costly for bulk food processing. The barriers include the lack of application to commercial scale or speed, lack of reliability, capital, energy and maintenance demands, and a current lack of reliable data on process operations. This paper will emphasize the current state of research and development of Vacuum-steam-vacuum (VSV) and steam pasteurization, and compare them to some non- (reduced) thermal technologies; e.g. pulsed-electric fields, and ohmic heating. It will also discuss the commercial deployment of these technologies. |
