ABSTRACTLittle information is available for canned foods specifying the extent and duration of a drop in retort temperature during thermal processing which could cause a public health hazard. Count reduction and heat penetration studies were performed using either a continuous agitating retort or a laboratory simulator to determine process lethality during temperature deviations (involving temperature drops of 20°F). In these tests, the can conveying reel was stopped as soon as the sterilizer temperature dropped, and was restarted when the retort temperature returned to that of the scheduled process. The results show that in the products tested, the process lethality during the temperature deviation was greater than that of the normal process
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