Lethality Calculation of Particulate Liquid Foods during Aseptic Processing

Abstract

In the past two decades, aseptic processing has been implemented in the food industry to sterilize particulate liquid food mixtures. To ensure that particulates in the liquid receive sufficient heating, mathematical modeling is employed to evaluate the temperature and lethality level in the particles. We developed a model for the thermal processing of liquid foods containing cubic particles in a continuous laminar pipe flow system, comprising a tubular heat exchanger. In our simplified approach, heat transfer equations for particulate liquid foods were solved analytically and numerically to evaluate the effect of certain process parameters on the time temperature profiles of particles and the lethality value in the products. A comparison of the particles’ lethality values was made between the experiment and simulation for two different particle residence times in a case study, and the model predictions were in good agreement with experimental data. Based on modeling studies, it was found that within the range of parameters studied, an increase in flow rate and particle size resulted in a decrease in the lethality value of the particles, while an increase in particle concentration and holding tube length resulted in the opposite effect.

Advances, Applications, and Comparison of Thermal (Pasteurization, Sterilization, and Aseptic Packaging) against Non-Thermal (Ultrasounds, UV Radiation, Ozonation, High Hydrostatic Pressure) Technologies in Food Processing

“…The particles are hydraulically conveyed through the process equipment in a liquid carrier; hence, it is difficult to measure the temperature in the center of the suspended particles. Therefore, mathematical models should be applied to describe the sterilization process, which are essential for process design and prediction of the particle dynamics and spatial and temporal variations in the temperatures of the particles moving throughout the continuous process system [23].…”