A Preliminary Evaluation to Establish Bath Pasteurization Guidelines for Hard Cider

Abstract

Though in-package water bath heat pasteurization for hard cider production is commonly employed to improve product safety and stability, there is a considerable lack of research-based guidelines to inform industry practices. In this study, fermented cider was bottled and inoculated with high populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii yeast. The bottles were then subjected to water bath pasteurization 60 °C at varying lengths of time. For both yeast species, populations were reduced to undetectable levels after just 1 min of processing time. Though validation of each individual process is recommended, cider producers may be able to sufficiently reduce the risks of spoilage organisms with minimal water bath pasteurization, especially when combined with other methods to reduce the presence of spoilage organisms.

Microbial Diversity and Safety in Fermented Beverages

“…It is therefore more prone to microbial spoilage such as the mentioned L. monocytogenes. Thus, Valliere and Harkins [7] used in-package water bath heat pasteurization for hard cider production which is commonly employed to improve product safety and stability, and they affirmed that there is a considerable lack of research-based guidelines to inform industry practices. Because of this, they performed an experiment where fermented cider was bottled and inoculated with high populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii yeast strains.…”