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A. K. DATTA, Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Cornell University, 208 Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, P. M. DAVIDSON, Food Science & Technology, University of Tennessee Knoxville, 201 McLeod Hall, P.O. Box 1071, Knoxville, TN 37901-1071, J. T. Barach, Vice President Special Projects, National Food Processors Association, 1350 I Street, N.W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, D. R. Heldman, Heldman Associates, 8 Shadow Ridge Circle, Newtown, CT 06470, and S. K. Sastry, Food, Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Ohio State University, 224 Agricultural Engineering, 590 Woody Hayes Drive, Columbus, OH 43210.

Microbial safety and process engineering of microwave and radio frequencies for commercial pasteurization and sterilization of food will be presented. Mechanisms of heating, destruction of pathogens, and validation of processes are discussed, followed by suggestions for handling deviations during industrial processing. Microwave and radio frequency heating refers to the use of electromagnetic waves of certain frequencies to generate heat in a material. It appears that the temperature rise caused by the energy absorption from microwaves and radio frequency causes the destruction of microorganisms. Microwave and radio frequency heating for pasteurization and sterilization are preferred to conventional heating because they have the benefits of high temperature-short time processes. A limitation to this technology is the difficulty in predicting the location of the coldest point, whose temperature-time history is the main critical process parameter.