Industrial processes for thermal sterilization of preserved foods aim at the microbiological and enzymatic stabilization of products in order to enable preservation at room temperature and therefore later consumption.With microbiological stabilization the probability of microbial survival and thus spoilage of preserved foods is reduced to levels that are considered acceptable.The heat treatment required to stabilize a preserved food product microbiologically can be determined when the following factors are known:1) heat resistance (DT and z), in that substrate, of the most heat resistant microorganism that can contaminate it and that is able to grow;2) the real or estimated concentration of the cells (or spores) of this microorganism .In addition, acceptable survival probability (NF) must be defined in terms of "probability of non-sterile unit" (PNSU), intended as determination of the endpoint of the industrial preservation process.The time required to obtain a determinate microbial inactivation at a given temperature is defined as sterilizing effect or lethal effect.
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