Influence of Selected Thermal Processing Conditions on Steam Consumption and on Mass Average Sterilizing Values

The influence of can size, type of food (conductive or convective), retort temperatures, initial temperature of food and target sterilizing value on steam consumption was studied. A 2⁵ factorial design of experiments was used. Steam consumption was measured by using steam flow meters. A mass average sterilizing value was computed for each process by using experimentally determined heat penetration parameters. Steam consumption was significantly high for processing larger cans compared to smaller cans both containing equal quantities of conduction heating food simulant. The can size had no significant influence on steam consumptions with the convection heating food simulant. Steam consumption and mass average sterilizing values were reduced significantly by employing a high retort temperature to obtain a high target F_p value. With a low target F_p value, the type of food simulant did not affect significantly mass average sterilizing value.