Most canned foods and other low-acid shelf-stable products are
produced by thermal sterilization at temperatures above 100 C to
ensure the elimination of pathogenic and food spoilage bacterial
spores. Thermal sterilization tends to adversely affect the product
nutritional and quality attributes. Pressure-assisted thermal processing
(PATP; 500e700 MPa, 90e121 C) offers new opportunities to
sterilize low-acid foods while preserving quality attributes to a
greater extent than is possible with traditional thermal processing.
The product heats rapidly and uniformly through adiabatic