ABSTRACTSThis paper presents a new mathematical analysis of the inoculated pack method for determining the effectiveness of radappertization (radiation‐sterilization) of canned food. A general theory is developed which makes it clear that two interrelated distribution functions, the probability of organism death and the probability of can sterilization, play important parts in the process. A critique is given of the Schmidt‐Nank method for calculating the 12D dose, and modifications of both the experimental design and data analysis are suggested. Two examples are worked out, one illustrating the use of the suggested method, the other using the theory and an experiment on canned ham to show that the mode of organism death is unlikely to be exponent
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