What is Pasteurization?
Defination
The process in which the pakaged or non pakaged food is treated with mild heat usually to a temperature less than 100 centigrade scale to eliminate pathogens or to improve product shelf life.
Discovery
A French microbiologist Louis Pasteur in 1860 discovered that fermentation of wine and beer can be prevented by heating it for a few minutes to about 57 centigrade scale.
Pasteurization is a mild heat treatment of liquid foods (both packaged and unpackaged) where products are typically heated to below 100 °C. The heat treatment and cooling process are designed to inhibit a phase change of the product.
The acidity of the food determines the parameters (time and temperature) of the heat treatment as well as the duration of shelf life. Parameters also take into account nutritional and sensory qualities that are sensitive to heat.
Advantages
Today pasteurization is widely used in dairy industry and other food processing industries to achieve food processing and food safety . The most widely used is in the pasteurization of milk.
Products that are commonly pasteurized
Pasteurization of milk
