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SELECTION OF VARIABLE RETORT TEMPERATURE PROCESSES FOR CANNED SALMON
Author(s) -
DURANCE TIMOTHY D.,
DOU JINGLE,
MAZZA JOSEPH
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of food process engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1745-4530
pISSN - 0145-8876
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4530.1997.tb00411.x
Subject(s) - retort , thermal conduction , materials science , mechanics , thermal diffusivity , chemistry , composite material , thermodynamics , physics , organic chemistry
Variable retort temperature processes (VRT), in which retort temperature is a function of time, were developed for sterilization of Pacific salmon in 307 × 115 steel cans, with objectives of minimizing loss of quality criteria such as surface quality or thiamine, or minimizing process time, all while maintaining constant center‐point lethality (F). A finite difference computer model of conduction within a finite cylinder was used to test different temperature‐time profiles. Processes were constrained to include steam vent schedules and to exclude temperature decrease during the heating process as well as temperature modulation during cooling, thereby improving compatibility with typical salmon canning facilities. Rho, the fraction of total lethality accumulated at steam‐off time, was found to be a function of final unaccomplished temperature, retort temperature, salmon thermal diffusivity and container geometry. The search for favorable processes was aided by Random Centroid Optimization (RCO). Minimum surface cook in constant retort temperature (CRT) processes varied with retort temperature and z of surface quality, but the best VRT process was consistently better than the best CRT process. VRT reduced operator's process time from 64 min to 54 min and maintained equal F 0 and surface quality. Thiamine losses were reduced from 19.6% loss by CRT to 16.8% loss by VRT.