Abstract
The objective of this work was to apply Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to study the effect of particle orientation on fluid flow, temperature evolution, as well as microbial destruction, during thermal processing of still cans filled with peach halves in sugar syrup. A still metal can with four peach halves in 20% sugar syrup was heated at 100 °C for 20 min and thereafter cooled at 20 °C. Infinite heat transfer coefficient between heating medium and external can wall was considered. Peach halves were orderly placed inside the can with the empty space originally occupied by the kernel facing, in all peaches, either towards the top or the bottom of the can. In a third situation, the can was placed horizontally. Simulations revealed differences on particle temperature profiles, as well as process F values and critical point location, based on their orientation. At their critical points, peach halves with the kernel space facing towards the top of the can heated considerably slower and cooled faster than the peaches having their kernel space facing towards the bottom of the can. The horizontal can case exhibited intermediate cooling but the fastest heating rates and the highest F process values among the three cases examined. The results of this study could be used in designing of thermal processes with optimal product quality.
Highlights
Thermal processing is a widely used and extensively studied method for food preservation.Undesirable quality degradation that inevitably accompanies the targeted destruction of pathogens and spoilage agents during thermal processing of foods, calls for optimum and accurate design of a thermal process
If we focus at the interior of the peach halves, the lowest F values calculated for the four peach halves of the “upward” case were 34.9 min, 37.8 min, 40.9 min and 40.6 min as we move from the bottom towards the top of the can
For the “upward” case, the critical point was located at the upper part of the peach half at the bottom of the can
Summary
Thermal processing is a widely used and extensively studied method for food preservation.Undesirable quality degradation that inevitably accompanies the targeted destruction of pathogens and spoilage agents during thermal processing of foods, calls for optimum and accurate design of a thermal process. The scientific principles for designing safe thermal processes pioneered by Ball and his colleagues [1,2] at the beginning of the previous century. These principles formed the basis for quality retention calculations during a thermal process, calculations led by Stumbo [3,4], initiated a number of new thermal process calculation methodologies [5], among which we should mention the one presented by Hayakawa [6], and served as guide for analyzing novel preservation processes as, for example, with the case of high hydrostatic pressure processing of foods [7].
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