Combining thermal and other preservation techniques (original) (raw)

To ensure a secure and steady food supply, food needs to be preserved, protected from deterioration, and stabilized so it can be stored for extended periods. Extending food products shelf life requires an inactivation of the living cells, i.e. generally spoilage or toxic microorganisms, they contains and avoiding restart of their proliferation. Therefore, food preservation implies exposure of microorganisms to hostile conditions. Heating is the most practical, efficient and inexpensive method of disinfection and sterilisation that stabilizes products. Thermal treatment lead to pasteurization, when only vegetative microorganisms are destroyed, or sterilization, when spores are also destroyed. Heat treatments are characterized by the level of temperature reached in the product and by its duration. However, heat resistance data and barems are generally established in optimal conditions i.e. hydration, pH, pressure, whereas heat resistance is influenced by these environmental parameters...