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Busting the myths about food pasteurization

A well-designed pasteurization system can protect your food and beverages from pathogens without being onerous to your operations and detrimental to your products.

Pasteurization systems that use heat exchangers reduce fouling and maintenance, while their range of heat recovery options means that energy costs are kept to a minimum. Photo courtesy of HRS Heat Exchangers.
Pasteurization systems that use heat exchangers reduce fouling and maintenance, while their range of heat recovery options means that energy costs are kept to a minimum. Photo courtesy of HRS Heat Exchangers.

As food and beverage processing becomes more complex and supply chains get longer, pasteurization becomes a more important tactic in a manufacturer’s food safety arsenal. Pasteurization not only kills pathogens to make food and drinks safe to consume, but it also extends shelf life and reduces spoilage. ProFood World caught up with HRS Heat Exchangers, a United Kingdom-based supplier of thermal technology and heat transfer solutions, to learn more about why pasteurization is vital for food and beverage manufacturers, dispelling seven popular myths about this particular food safety technique in the process. 

Myth 1: Pasteurization is expensive.

While the exact costs will vary with each installation, there is no doubt that there is a capital cost to pasteurization. However, the capital expenditure and running costs are insignificant when compared with the potential losses due to food spoilage or, worse, a food safety recall. In the United States, recalling food products average $10 million a year — and that doesn’t include damage to a company’s brand. Last year, the USDA issued 24 recalls due to E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella contamination, resulting in the destruction of almost 700,000 pounds of food products.

Myth 2: Pasteurization is too complex.

Pasteurization is a relatively simple process. It requires heating liquid or food for a certain time at a certain temperature in order to kill micro-organisms. Pasteurization adds an additional step in the overall manufacturing process, but a well-designed pasteurization system should not slow down throughput or place additional management burdens on the plant. Continuous pasteurization systems simplify the process and minimize the potential for product damage or change in quality.

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