National Center for Food Safety and Technology gets advanced sterilization system that may lead to a replacement for the common can
Food technologists at the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) in Summit-Argo, Ill., have just finished installing the world’s most advanced high-pressure sterilization apparatus. Scientists hope the new system will help them develop novel methods to preserve food.
Foods like soups, canned fruits and vegetables and pastas need to be sterilized and heat-treated before they are canned. This prevents common spores and molds from growing on the food and reducing their shelf-life. The problem with modern sterilization techniques involved in canning foods is that they compromise the flavor and the quality of the food.
Before food is canned, it is heat treated for long periods of time to sterilize it. NCFST’s new system uses extreme pressure and short periods of high temperature to achieve the same effect. Previous sterilization systems have also used high pressures, but they were only able to treat acidic foods like salsa and juice. The new system is able to sterilize low-acid foods like soups. Sterilization is important because it kills bacteria and spores that like to grow on food, like Clostridium botulinum, the spore that causes botulism.
The new sterilization equipment, built by Flow International, can treat up to 35 liters of liquid food (think soup or sauce) at a time. Its powerful combination of high pressure and heat allow the food to be sterilized with a minimum loss of food quality and taste. “Food treated with this new system will be better able to retain that home-cooked flavor,” says V.M. Balasubramaniam, a food technologist at the NCFST. “Before this system, food processors had no choice but to accept the loss in food quality after sterilization.”
The high pressure system at the NCFST will be used by the Dual Use Science and Technology (DUST) consortium. DUST consortium members include Hormel Food Engineering Division, Procter and Gamble Company, ConAgra Grocery Products.
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