One of the most important processes in the preservation of food is heat treatment. Solid foods such as cucumber, cabbage or fruit can be kept for an extended time in closed containers such as wide-mouth jars and prevented from bacterial or microbial fungal spoilage. Through heat treatment however, qualities such as smell and taste, texture and vitamin content are altered. Heat treatment has a main problem: due to safety reasons, it is necessary to carry out an “over-heating”. It has not been possible until now to assess directly what form of killing effect exactly takes place through the heating process. To date it has also not been technically possible, to individually adjust the heat treatment to every product. However, this is exactly what is required. The length and temperature of the heat treatment necessary for each product regarding the prevention microbial spoilage depends mainly on its chemical composition, which determines which bacteria and fungi are able to grow.

An inter-disciplinary research team from OWL UAS is working with the aid of digital technology towards a custom-made solution for the pasteurisation of preserved food in glass jars. This should allow the establishment of the exact killing effect at every stage, so that the heating plant can immediately react to a over-intensive treatment. The product quality should be improved, the use of resources and costs should be reduced and the product safety should be improved through a less intensive treatment.

Project leader
Prof. Dr. Jan Schneider