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M. B. COLE1, C. M. Stewart1, and J. W. Larkin2. (1) National Center for Food Safety and Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology, IIT Moffett Campus, 6502 S. Archer Rd., Summit-Argo, IL 60501-1923, (2) National Center for Food Safety and Technology, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, IIT Moffett Campus, 6502 S. Archer Rd., 4th Fl., Summit-Argo, IL 60501 Emerging preservation technologies offer alternatives to traditional thermal processing as a food safety control measure. Nonthermal treatments, such as high pressure processing, can be attractive alternatives to thermal processing in order to meet the increasing consumer demands for minimally processed, high quality, preservative free, convenient, and safe food products. They may also provide the opportunity to develop innovative new products that have the convenience of a thermally processed food, in terms of shelf life, but that are closer to the fresh product in terms of organoleptic and nutritional quality. More recently, their role in the safe delivery of heat labile, functional or nutritional ingredients in foods is being recognized. If the potential of these technologies is to be fully realized, it is critical that they are developed and commercialized in a manner that does not compromise, but preferably enhances food product safety. The validation of any food safety control measure involves the documentation and demonstration that the measure is properly designed to provide the level of hazard control necessary. The stringency of the required validation exercise depends on a number of factors, including the severity of the hazard, the intended use of the product and the previous experience with the process. In the case of the sterilization of low acid canned foods, the hazard of Clostridium botulinum is indeed considered a severe hazard and hence the required validation steps will need to be the most stringent. This is especially the case if the new scheduled process is not simply based on the delivery of heat to the product. International developments in predictive modelling of microbial inactivation and microbial risk management in this area have been considerable. This paper will discuss how these developments can be used in a framework to validate new sterilization processes.
Session 9, Mechanisms and modeling of bacterial spore inactivation by high pressure processing
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |