Physical methods of food preservation Flashcards
originally, what were food preservation methods developed for?
to extend the shelf life of food products by protecting them from microbiological spoilage
what are modern preservation methods designed for?
extend shelf life, but also to ensure its safety by inactivating pathogens, or in some cases jus preventing their growth
what is the definition of bacterial inactivation?
destruction of the organism as judged by its inability to recover on microbiological media (destroy to the point if you plate it on media, it does not grow)
what are the most common food preservation methods?
physical methods
what are examples of physical preservation methods?
- high-temperature treatment (cooking)
- low-temperature preservation (freezing)
- Decreasing Water Availability (i.e. drying, salting)
- Ionizing Irradiation
- High-Pressure Processing (HPP)
- Pulsed Electric Field
what happens when the temperature exceeds the optimal temperature for an organism?
cell multiplication slows and eventually stops.
Additional temperature may result in cell death.
protein denaturation, collapse of the cytoplasmic membrane, thermal lysis
what happens when the temperature is very low?
organisms don’t die, their growth slows down (transport processes so slow) (membrane gelling, enzymatic reactions are slow)
freezing does not kill …. but kills ….
bacterial pathogens
but kills parasites
thermal processing kills ….
bacterial pathogens
what is a drawback of thermal processing? give example.
over heating may damage the product quality so process development and validation is important
e.g. chocolate gets burnt before you kill salmonella
what are 6 factors that affect heat transfer?
- product type
- container material
- container shape
- container size
- agitation
- temperature of heating medium
… absorb heat faster than … foods
liquids absorb heat faster than solid foods
… containers heat more slowly than … containers
glass containers heat more slowly than metal containers
.. and … containers heat more quickly than other shapes (heat o centre faster)
tall and narrow
the centre of … containers get reached more quickly Han the centre of … containers
small ; large
… and … help to increase heat transfer especially in viscous or semi-viscous products
agitation and mixing
the greater the difference in … between the heat transfer medium and the product, the more rapid the rate of heat transfer to the product (oil vs. air) (temperature of heating medium)
temperature
what are the major parameters that affect thermal treatments?
time and temperature
what are survivor plots?
plots depict the logarithmic nature of population inactivation over time
what is the decimal reduction time (D value)
the time it takes for a 10-fold reduction in the number of survivors at a given temperature
(it takes 6min [D value] to reduce the bacterial population from 1000 to 100 a 120C)
what does a big D value at a given temperature mean about an organism?
the greater the D value, the more resistant that organism is to heat, at a given temperature.
heat doesn’t kill all organisms, it is just a …..
log reduction
the D value of a microorganisms … as the processing temperature …
decreases
increases
what is a thermal resistant plot?
when D value is plotted against temperature. it is generally linear and is useful or comparing the different resistances of a microorganism at different temperatures
what is calculated from the thermal resistant plot? what is it?
z value (thermal resistance constant), mathematically equal to the negative reciprocal of the slope => represents the change in temperature required to change the D value of a microorganism by an order of magnitude (10-fold) (at 90C it takes 20min, at 100C it takes 3min, at 110C it take 0.3min => z value=10C
what does a large z-value indicate?
a more resistant organism
why are thermal lethality measurements taken?
to determine the amount of time required to commercially sterilize food at a given temperature
what is the F value?
the time, in minutes, at a specified temperature, required to achieve a targeted reduction in a homogenous population having a specific z value
what is the difference between the F value and the D value?
D value defines the time it takes to reduce the population by 1 log, F value represents the time it takes to get the population to a specific level (i.e. 10^1 or sterile)
F-value is how much time did it take to go from this many to this many
It is common for the canning industry to calculate … with the time at a specific temperature to achieve commercial sterility
F value
what does the canning industry assume?
It is assumed that this process can reduce a C. botulinum population by 12 log
…. is the key pathogen of concern for canned low acid foods
Clostridium botulinum
what is the D value of C. botulinum at 121C? and z value?
D121C value of 0.21 minutes, and a Z value of 10C.
what does it mean for C botulinum to have a D121C value of 0.21 minutes and a z value of 10C?
to achieve commercial sterility at F121C you multiply 0.21 minutes by 12 which equals 2.52 minutes
what is sterilization?
Sterilization is the process of rendering a product free of any living organisms
(autoclaving)
Application of sterilization to food would require exposing products to excessive heating and result in products with unacceptable quality