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Thermal processing guideline issued by Campden BRI

Campden BRI has issued a new guideline: “Validation and optimisation of thermal processing systems”. Thermal processing is at the centre of food preservation, the company notes, ensuring that foods are safe from microbiological contamination and remain high in nutritional and sensory attributes. Whatever the thermal process, it continues, the need for food manufacturers to prove […]

Campden BRI has issued a new guideline: “Validation and optimisation of thermal processing systems”.

Thermal processing is at the centre of food preservation, the company notes, ensuring that foods are safe from microbiological contamination and remain high in nutritional and sensory attributes. Whatever the thermal process, it continues, the need for food manufacturers to prove the safety of their food product through a programme of thermal process validation is a common requirement.

“Validation and optimisation of thermal processing systems: cookers, pasteurisers and sous vide systems” is designed to explain the general requirements and design of thermal processes (cooking, pasteurisation and sous vide processing) and the associated procedures and methods for their validation. It also covers some of the considerations on optimisation of the processes to achieve good quality products.

Campden bRI points out that there is an ever growing range of food products preserved by thermal technologies, ranging from sterilisation (such as canning) to milder pasteurisation heat treatments (such as cook-chill and cook-freeze), and that rapid advances are being made in process technologies and equipment used for thermal processing, with processes such as continuous flow heating and cooling systems, hot-fill processes and novel thermal technologies (e.g. micro-wave, radio frequency and ohmic heating) becoming common in food manufacturing. All these need validating and optimising, Campden BRI says, and this guidance addresses these situations.