Development

Asep Tech USA can help you develop a new product or assist you in changing your existing process into another or new process.

This page uses the metric system. If this confuses you, go to the American / Metric conversion page.

The desired process and packaging technology depends for example on economics, marketing and properties of the product.

If we focus only on the process technology, we have the following to ask our self.

Why is the pH question so important? Lets view the following diagram which presents the growth-rate of micro-organisms relating to pH.

We learn from this diagram that bacteria will not grow when the pH is lower than 4.6.

When a product has a pH that is higher then 4.6, the product is called low Acid.

The following diagram represents the lethal effect in relation to time/temperature for destruction of some micro-organisms and enzymes.

The Thermopile spores and other heat resistant micro-organisms are not visualized in the diagram since they are basically destroyed above 121 degrees centigrade. To give some examples, the clostridium botillicum is destroyed at a temperature of approximately 120 degrees with a holding time of 20 minutes, on 140 degrees centigrade it takes only 2 seconds to destroy this micro-organism.

Here is another interesting diagram in the growth-rate of micro-organisms in relation to the temperature.

Degrees Centigrade

We learn from this diagram that mesophillic and thermophillic micro-organisms can not grow below the 10 degrees centigrade. If we keep the product which contains a reasonable amount of micro-organism below this temperature we are reducing the growth-rate and therefore extending the shelf- life of the product.

The following diagram puts the growth-rate from micro-organisms in relation to the temperature diagram in a practical processing diagram. If you aim to make an ESL product, the mesophillic spores should be taken into consideration. In general, if you process on the right side of the mesophilic spore line, the process is sufficient to ensure extended shelf-life under refrigerated conditions. 

If you want to process an aseptic low-acid product the thermophilic spores line should be taken into consideration to ensure a shelf-stable product. Off course, the amount of thermophilic spores in your base product should be observed to ensure a sufficient "kill rate". Therefore coco containing products are processed a couple of degrees higher.

How to work with the diagrams?

Looking at the pH/growth-rate diagram we see that bacteria does not grow in this product. This means that we need to process the product in such a way that all vegetative pathogenic bacteria are destroyed.

We take now a view at the lethal effect curve diagram and learn that if we heat the product at around 85 degrees Centigrade and have a holding tube of approximately 20 seconds we have destroyed the majority of the pathogenic micro-organisms.

Now we need to select a package which can be "sterilized" in such a way that the majority of pathogenic micro-organisms are destroyed prior to filling and can be sealed hermetically.

If we establish all this, we have a shelf-stable product which does not need refrigeration.

Process:                        HTST
Packaging equipment:    Ultra Clean

 

Looking at the pH/growth-rate diagram we see that bacteria does not grow in this product. This means we need to process the product in such a way that all vegetative pathogenic bacteria are destroyed.

We take now a view at the lethal-effect curve diagram and learn that if we heat the product to around 75 degrees Centigrade, and have a holding tube of approximately 20 seconds, we have destroyed most of the pathogenic micro-organisms.

From the growth-rate/temperature diagram we learn that we can, by keeping the product refrigerated, inhibit the excessive growth of micro-organisms in the product.

 

Process:                        Pasteurization
Packaging equipment:  Hygienic packaging equipment

Looking at the pH/growth-rate diagram we see that bacteria does grow in this product. This means that we need to process the product in such a way that all micro-organisms are destroyed. Therefore we need to have a UHT process.

Now, we need to select a package which can be sterilized, filled, and sealed under aseptic conditions.

If we establish all this, we have a shelf-stable product which does not need refrigeration.

Process:                        UHT
Packaging equipment:   Aseptic filling equipment

We can also opt for a two phase system which is further explained on this page.

 

 

Last modified: Monday, January 17, 2005 14:51:40    1999-2005 Copy right © ASEP-TECH USA LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.