Principles of Canning

du, University of Mersin, Mersin, Turkey

Z Boz, R Uyar, and F Erdog
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
This article is a revision of the previous edition article by Aslan Aziz, volume 2, pp 10081016, 1999, Elsevier Ltd.

Introduction
It always has been a challenge for communities to maintain
nutritional value and quality attributes (e.g., taste, texture,
avor, and color) of food products longer. Thermal processing
is one of the most common preservation methods to make
food products microorganism-free via the effect of heat and
temperature. It not only provides a medium, free of pathogenic
and spoilage microorganisms to some extent, but also inactivates enzymes, eventually deteriorating the quality attributes.
Canning provides sterilization and increases the shelf life of
food products by applying heat in hermetically sealed (airtight)
containers. About 50 billion cans are manufactured and
consumed globally every year in the food-processing area. Two
fundamentally different methodologies might be applied in
canning process: retort processing and aseptic processing. In the
rst process, containers (cans, jars, or any other retortable
containers) are lled with the product, sealed airtight, and
thermally processed under pressure until a certain sterilization
degree is achieved. In aseptic processing, limited to liquid food
products, the container and product are sterilized individually,
and lling and sealing processes are carried out. Continuous
heat processes, such as aseptic processing, enable food
producers to perform thermal treatment at elevated temperatures for reduced times. Such processes are called hightemperature short-time (HTST) and ultrahigh-temperature
(UHT) processes due to the high temperatures involved. HTST
and UHT are designated to be operated at higher temperatures
than other conventional pasteurization or sterilization techniques. This leads to a reduced process time, preserving the
organoleptic quality of food products. In UHT processes, the
boiling point is exceeded via the increased pressure to sterilize
the product, while HTST processes still might be characterized
as a pasteurization process for possible applications at
temperatures below 100
C. For example, regarding the heat
processing of milk, HTST pasteurization is carried out at
around 72
C for 15 s, while in a UHT sterilization process,
boiling temperature is exceeded (135145
C) for 110 s.
Retort processing, as in-container sterilization, generally is
considered to be canning within the food industry. Canning as
a food preservation method started in early 1800s in France
when Nicholas Appert developed a new methodology to
preserve and extend the shelf life of a wide variety of food
products, including some vegetables, in glass jars and bottles.
Even though Appert explained the process to some extent, the
true foundations of the process were laid by the discovery of
Louis Pasteur, who explained that the heating process inactivated the microorganisms, limiting the shelf life of food
products. The discovery of the relationship between thermophilic bacteria and the spoilage of canned corn and peas was
another milestone in canning, and the investigation of basic
biological and toxicological characteristics of Clostridium botulinum formed the theoretical foundation for understanding its
signicance to establish a controlled process. Botulinum toxin

160

causes botulism, resulting in permanent nerve damage, and

C. botulinum spores require anaerobic conditions, low-acid
foods, relatively high moisture, and mild storage temperatures
for cans given a suitable environment for their germination.
Starting with Apperts process in glass bottles more than
200 years ago in 1810, producing heat-preserved foods in
hermetically sealed containers (including cylindrical tin cans)
has contributed to improved nutrition and health in a significant way. The invention of metal containers and pressure
retorts evolved into twenty-rst-century canning technology.
The development of metal and glass containers capable of
withstanding added internal pressures was a major breakthrough to apply processing temperatures of 120
C above
atmospheric pressure. The presence of headspace is required
to ensure an adequate amount of vacuum during the process,
and it has a signicant inuence on the heat-transfer rate
especially for liquid foods and liquidsolid food mixtures
as demonstrated by the increased heat-transfer rate in
liquid-containing cans.
Canning is regarded as a universal and economical method
in food processing. Even though canning has many processing
steps, the critical control point that ensures food safety and
causes changes in quality parameters is thermal processing.
Retort systems are the most often used equipment during
thermal processing. Therefore, thermal processing and its
contribution to the canning process are emphasized in the
following section before discussing the processing steps.

Microbiological Viewpoint
The objective of thermal processing is to reduce or partially
inactivate the microorganisms that exist in a medium. Although
thermal inactivation of microorganisms is associated with irreversible denaturation of membranes, ribosomes, and nucleic
acids, various factors determine the heat resistance of microorganisms, including the type of microorganism (e.g., spores are
resistant compared with the vegetative cells) and heat treatment
conditions (pH, water activity, composition of the food material). Water activity of the food product inuences the heat
resistance of vegetative cells. In addition, moist heat is more
effective than dry heat for microbial destruction because of the
increased heat-transfer coefcient of the heating medium.
Canning, as one of the basic processes in thermal treatments, reduces or partially inactivates the microorganisms.
Microorganisms can affect the quality of a canning process in
three possible ways:
1. Microorganisms might survive the heat treatment and cause
spoilage, safety problems, and undesirable changes in the
products due to an insufcient process.
2. Microorganisms that naturally grow or contaminate the raw
material may destruct the quality attributes before
processing.

Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, Volume 2

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384730-0.00156-7

Number of surviving microorganisms

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

100000
10000
1000
100
10
1

0.1
0.01
0

Figure 1

161

6
8
Time (min)

10

12

14

A typical survival curve for bacterial spores during heat treatment at a certain temperature to determine D-value.

3. Contamination related to equipment and lack of

personnel hygiene might occur and endanger the endproducts quality and safety during and after processing
(e.g., damaged cans might be subjected to contaminated
water during cooling).
The rst and third ways that microorganisms affect the
quality may be related to the pathogenic microorganisms. As
soon as validity of a thermal treatment is ensured and hygiene
is taken care; retort technology and canning are designed to
destruct all pathogenic and most of the spoilage microorganisms in a hermetically sealed container and to create an environment inside the container that will disable the growth of
spoilage microorganisms and their spores. On the basis of this
principle, canned food products are processed thermally to
make them commercially sterile.

Thermal Resistance of Microorganisms

Various researchers have studied the determination of thermalprocessing parameters in canning for many years. On the basis
of their work, current technology in the canning industry has
abundant resources to maintain and safely validate the critical
thermal-processing procedure. Obtaining the required thermalprocessing parameters with laborious experimental procedures,
however, is still a milestone for this systematic information.
Thermal resistance of a microorganism is determined by validating the purity of strains and spores and gaining a distinct
number of organisms following the thermal treatment at
a constant temperature. For this procedure, an exact number of
spores or vegetative cells are placed in sealed containers, made
up of Pyrex, screw-top closed glass, or glass capillary tubes.
Then, heat treatment at a given timetemperature combination
is applied. Enumeration and recovery are carried out to determine the surviving number of microorganisms or spores.
Eventually, data obtained from the thermal resistance experiments are utilized to form microbial survival curves and to
determine the required process parameters on the basis of the
given target microorganism. Factors inuencing the heat resistance of microorganisms can be summarized as species of the
microorganism, acidity (pH) of the medium, water activity,
and composition of the food product and oxygen level.

Numbers of microorganisms and spores, exposed to heat

for a certain period of time, logarithmically reduce proportional to the applied temperature and time. When the
microbial population as a function of time is presented in
semilogarithmic coordinates, a linear decrease in the microbial population with time at a constant temperature is
observed:
D

t
log N0  log N

[1]

where D is decimal reduction time, and N0 and N are the initial

and nal numbers of microorganisms. D-value can be dened
as the required time to reduce the number of microorganisms
1 log cycle (or by a factor of 10) at a given temperature. Even
though the D-value is regardless of the initial number of the
population, applied temperature is of great effect, and it is
a strong function of temperature. A typical survival curve for
microorganisms to determine D-value can be observed in
Figure 1, and effect of temperature on D-values is illustrated
in Figure 2.
As demonstrated in Figure 1, the number of survivors are
plotted on a semilog graph (by taking the logarithm of the
number of survivors) as a function of time, and a 1 logcycle
reduction determined from the slope gives the D-value



1
. A decrease in D-value requires a temperature
D 
Slope
increase to reach the same degree of reduction, and this
temperature change (Figure 3), the z-value, is the required
increase in temperature to reduce the D-value 1 log cycle (or by
a factor of 10):
z

T2  T1
DT
log 1
DT2

[2]

Table 1 gives D- and z-values of various microorganisms.

Finally, sterilization value, accumulated value of lethality, L
(eqn [3]) is dened as the time required to reduce the number
microorganism and microbial spores to a predetermined level
(eqn [4]):
L 10

TTref
z

[3]

162

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

1.00E + 08

Number of survivors

1.00E + 07
1.00E + 06
1.00E + 05
1.00E + 04
1.00E + 03
1.00E + 02
1.00E + 01
1.00E + 00
1.00E 01

T3
0

T2

10

15

T1
20

25

Time (min)
Figure 2

Effect of temperature on D-value (T1 < T2 < T3).

1000

D-value (min)

100
10
1

0.1
0.01
100

109

118

127

136

145

Temperature (C)
Figure 3

Change in D-value as a function of temperature to determine z-value.

Z
F0

t0

10

TTref
z

dt D$log


N0
N

[4]

where Tref is a reference temperature and t is the thermal

process time. As eqn [4] demonstrates, F-value might be
expressed as multiples of D-values, and the most common
relationship used in canning is F 12D for C. botulinum in
commercial sterilization for low-acid canned foods (pH > 4.6).
Given that the 12D for C. botulinum is 2.52 min (12  0.21),
the food safety requirement for a sterilization process is
F0  2.52 min.
Logarithmic destruction of microorganisms leads to probability calculations in sterilization examples. For example,
0.5 kg cans with an initial concentration of C. botulinum spores
of 102 g1 are processed thermally to satisfy the 12D concept,
and the survival concentration becomes 1010 g1. This nding
means that only one living spore may survive in a 1010 g endproduct (a probability of nding only 1 infected can in
20 million).
It is also possible to express the sterilization value at any
timetemperature combination in terms of equivalent time of
F0 at 121
C:
F F0 $10

Tref T
z

[5]

On the basis of eqn [5], F0 of 2.52 min at 121
C would be

equivalent to 32.46 min at 110
C and 0.32 min at 130
C,
while assuming instantaneous heating and cooling to the
appropriate temperatures (accumulated lethality values during
these times are ignored).
The explained methodology (eqn [4]) developed by Bigelow et al., which involves numerical integration when the
process temperature change and thermalphysical properties of
the canned product is known, is a simple and accurate methodology to determine sterilization value. Even though several
formula methods, for example, Ball, Stumbo, and Pham,
should be developed to determine the process time or accumulated lethality for a given process, Bigelows method is more
convenient to apply. For this purpose, temperature change at
the coldest spot of the product (geometrical center for
conduction-heated food products) or the slowest heating zone
(the SHZ between the geometrical center and the bottom
surface for food products involving convection heating) should
be known. Figure 4 illustrates the location of the coldest spot
for conduction-heated and the SHZ for convection-heated
canned food products with the given temperature scales. Blueshaded areas show the cold regions and red-shaded areas show
the hot regions. Figure 4(a) demonstrates temperature
contours with uniform kernels via the effect of conduction with

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

Table 1

163

D- and z-values of various microorganisms

Foodborne
pathogens

Food spoilage
microorganisms

Microorganism

D-value (min)

Reference temperature (
C)

z-value (
C)

Medium

Clostridium perfringens
Clostridium botulinum
Listeria monocytogenes
Escherichia coli
Bacillus stearothermophilus
Clostridium sporogenes
Yeast and molds

5.30
0.21
3.29
1.97
4.00
0.81.5
0.51.00

60.0
121.1
60.0
60.0
121.1
121.1
65.6

6.74
10.0
6.33
4.67
10.0
8.811.1

Lean ground beef

Fatty beef
Lean ground beef
Vegetables and milk
Meat products
High acid foods

Adapted from Fellows, P.J., 1988. Food Processing Technology (Principles and Practice), Ellis Horwood Ltd., Chickester, England; Chen et al. (2011); Thippareddi, H., Sanchez,
M., 2006. Thermal processing of meat products. In: Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal Food Processing New Technologies and Quality Issues, CRC Press Taylor & Francis, Boca
Raton, FL, pp. 155196; Teixeira, A.A., 2006. Simulating thermal food processes using deterministic models. In: Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal Food Processing New Technologies and Quality Issues, CRC Press Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 73106; Holdsworth, S.D., 2004. Optimizing the safety and quality of thermally-processed
packaged foods. In: Richardsson, P. (Ed.), Improving the Thermal Processing of Foods, Woodhead PublishingCRC Press. Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 327.

the cold spot at the geometrical center, and distorted kernels of

temperature contours by natural convection with the SHZ are
observed in Figure 4(b).
Figure 5 shows a simple example for calculation of sterilization value using the temperature data obtained at the
geometrical center of a conductively heated food product in
a can. Temperature change at the coldest spot of a conductively
heated can (307  409) subjected to the processing
temperature of 121
C for 90 min and then cooling at 20
C is
given in Figure 5(a), and the lethality change at the coldest spot
is shown in Figure 5(b). Numerical integration using the data
given in Figure 5(b) results in the sterilization value of
2.82 min (area-A under the lethality curve).

Derivation of the sterilization value F0 solely depends on

two prominent assumptions: rst, isothermal spore inactivation kinetics follow the linear logarithmic relationship to be
characterized by the D-value; and, second, the temperature
dependence of D-value also conforms to a linear logarithmic
behavior (alternatively, temperature dependence of inactiva


1
tion rate k-value k
obeys the Arrhenius relation). Recent
D
literature, however, shows that these assumptions do not
always hold, and the inactivation of bacterial spores may
follow the Weibullian model (eqn [6]) in which temperature
dependence of the inactivation rate also should be taken into
account in addition to time. Therefore, it is signicant to

Figure 4 Location of (a) coldest point for conduction heated and (b) slowest heating zone for convection heated canned products
(left-hand side is the center line along the cross section).

164

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

(a)

140

Temperature

120
100
80
Cold spot temperature

60

Process temperature

40
20
0

30

60

90

120

150

180

Process time (min)

(b)

0.16
0.14

Lethality

0.12
0.1
0.08
Lethality

0.06
0.04

A = F0

0.02
0
0

30

60

90

120

150

180

Process time (min)

Figure 5

Temperature change at the coldest spot of a can, including (a) conductively heated food and (b) lethality change at the coldest spot.

determine the theoretical implications to apply nonlinear

kinetics for thermal processing


N
log
[6]
bT$t nT
N0

C. botulinum (a heat-resistant pathogenic microorganism in this

pH level) or its spores. Because pH, a term used to designate the
acidity or alkalinity of a solution, has signicant effect, food
products are classied on the basis of pH for the purpose of
thermal processing:

where b(T) and n(T) are temperature-dependent coefcients.

Commercial Sterility and Effect of pH

1. High acid (pH < 4.0)

2. Acid (pH between 4.0 and 4.6)
3. Low acid (pH > 4.6 where the target organism is
C. botulinum)

If a canned product satises the requirement of being microbiologically safe under storage conditions, it could be described
as commercially sterile. Commercial sterility is described in
the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Canning Regulations 9 CFD 318.300 and 9 CFD 381.300: The condition achieved by application of heat, sufcient alone or in combination with
other ingredients and/or treatments, to render the product free of
microorganisms capable of growing in the product at non-refrigerated
condition (over 10
C) at which the product is intended to be held
during distribution and storage. Commercial sterility implies that
any remaining microorganisms and spores will be incapable of
growth under normal storage conditions.
Two groups of microorganisms concern the canning of food
products, one of which endangers the health and safety of
population. Foods with a pH above 4.6 might contain

The relationship between pH and the thermal resistance

of bacteria and bacterial spores was a milestone for canning
to classify the canned foods on the basis of their pH. Other
types of microorganisms are more heat tolerant than
C. botulinum and its spores in low acid foods. Even though
these microorganisms may cause spoilage and some undesirable quality changes, they are not pathogenic to human
health. For the economical perspective, the spoilage possibility of those can be tolerable to the levels of 105, whereas
the level is 1012 for C. botulinum. For canned foods, the
distinctive pH value is 4.6, which is the minimum pH for the
growth of C. botulinum as the most heat-resistant food
pathogen microorganism.
A typical thermal death time in thermal processing of
shelf-stable canned foods is F 12D, as explained

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

previously, with the D-value of C. botulinum (0.21 min) at
121.1
C. The primary objective of thermal processing is to
inactivate C. botulinum in products with a pH greater than 4.6
(since C. botulinum spores cannot germinate below pH of
4.6) and to destroy vegetative and other spore-forming
microorganisms that might cause spoilage. Besides
C. botulinum, mesophilic species (like Clostridium sporogenes,
Clostridium butyricum, and Clostridium pasteurinaum) and
thermophilic species (Clostridium thermosaccharolyticum) can
cause putrefactive or sacharolytic spoilage and gas formation
leading to the swelling of cans. Contrary to swelling,
microorganisms like Bacillus coagulans and Bacillus stearothermophilus cause thermophilic at-sour spoilage in cans. In
acidic foods (pH below 4.6), however, Clostridium barati,
Clostridium perfringes, and C. butyricum might cause intoxication problems. These microorganisms have been reported
to produce toxins in infant food formulations.
Processing times and temperatures are lower in acid foods,
compared with the case of low-acid foods, as microorganisms
can be inactivated easier in an acid environment. Acid foods
can be processed at temperature around 100
C at atmospheric
pressure without the requirement to use pressurized retorts, for
which B. coagulans, as a consideration for at-sour spoilage, can
be used as a target microorganism.

Process Validation
Thermal-processing parameters are calculated due to several
factors in canning, and a thermal process is evolved by determining the following:
1. Heat resistance of the spoilagepathogen microorganisms
2. Heat penetration rate into the product
3. Calculation of sterilization value (or sterilization value F,
time required for reduction in a population of vegetative
cells or spores) using temperature change at the coldest spot
or the SHZ of the product and thermal resistance data
(z-value) of the given microorganism
4. Validation of process time by microbiological (inoculated
pack studies) or mathematicalcomputational methods
The length of thermal processing is determined by resistance
of the target microorganism, process conditions, pH and
composition of the food product, can size, and heat-transfer
mechanism (conduction or convection) occurring inside the
can. To control and validate the thermal process performed,
some key points are to be followed. The first and most
important one is the heat-penetration mechanism and
temperature distribution within the canned food. During
a heat-penetration test, temperature of the retort and can is
measured with thermocouples throughout the processing time.
Because of the thermal and physical properties of food and
properties of the container, the heat-transfer mechanism and
heat-penetration rate might change over time. Regarding the
heat penetration, the coldest spot or SHZ is dened as the
region that is reaching the required sterilization temperature
latest and that is limiting the heat-transfer rate. The position of
the SHZ depends on the size and shape of the can and the
thermophysical properties and physical state of the food
product. On this basis, the heat-transfer mechanism between
heating medium and canned food should be known to

165

determine the temperature distribution within the product. All

thermal-processing calculations are carried out for the coldest
spot or the SHZ to fulll the safety requirements and to
consider the worst-case scenario. In addition to using thermocouples, the following methods also are considered for
process validation:
1. Microbiological methods and survival curves
2. Simulation techniques
3. Timetemperature indicators

Canned Food Production

The canning industry has a strong background due to the early
demands and improvements. Handling of raw material and
containers and choosing the retort system provide the basis for
the production of canned foods.

Raw Material and Containers

In the canning process, plenty of foods can be used as a raw
material, some of which require special or additional processes.
For example, sh should be cleaned or peas should be taken
apart from their shells. Before canning, pretreatments might be
needed for example, blanching of vegetables to remove
respiratory gases, inhibit enzymatic reactions, promote
shrinkage of product for adequate ll, hydrate dry products,
and preheat the product to assist in further vacuum formation.
For all of these separate processes, new equipment was developed to fulll the requirements.
Raw material chosen for canning should have certain properties. If a raw material and its container are of a high quality and
thermal treatment is performed appropriately, the end-product
will be satisfactory for both producers and consumers. Raw
material should be grown or harvested away from hazardous
waste, including chemical resources and domestic, industrial, or
agricultural wastes. Variations in raw material properties, such as
high initial microbial load, maturation level, size, and shape of
the product, might cause variations in thermal processing and
result in food safety risks.
After lling into glass or metal containers, the exhaust
procedure to create an anaerobic environment is carried out
before the sealing and heatingcooling processes. Containers
for a canned food can be metal or glass with certain fundamental properties depending on the consumer demand and
available processing techniques:
1. Container and sealing parts should not have a negative
effect on sensory properties of the product and performance
of thermal processing.
2. Container should be resistant to mechanical, chemical, and
thermal effects through the whole process, including storage.
3. Containers should be compatible to sealing hermetically.
4. Sealing material should be appropriate for the product.
Metal containers are the most regularly used for canned
foods with their higher thermal conductivity and thin walls,
enabling heat penetration during thermal processing. There are
various types of metal containers, such as tin plate cans, twopiece cans, tin-free steel, and so on. In addition to their
advantages for a convenient processing, metal containers pose

166

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

risks to alkaline, corrosive water, and food-induced corrosion.

To prevent this, a special coating called can enamel is applied
to the can. Other types of containers, such as glass, plastic, or
semirigid and exible containers, also are used in canning.
Customers prefer certain types of containers depending on
their intended use, such as a transparent body to see the interior
and microwavable properties of plastic containers. Besides
metal and glass containers, exible retort pouches consisting of
a three-ply laminate of polyester, aluminum foil (oxygen and
light barrier), and polypropylene (inner seal) that can withstand sterilization temperatures up to 130
C also have been
used in canning process.

Canning Process
As summarized, a generalized canning process contains the
following steps (Figure 6):
1. Preprocessing of raw material (cleaning, sorting, peeling,
slicing, blanching, preparation of brine, syrup, or oil
depending on the type of raw material)
2. Preparation of the packaging material (containers)
3. Filling the raw material

4. Exhausting and sealing

5. Thermal processing in retorts and storage
During these processes, appropriate sampling and inspection procedures should be applied to ensure safety during
process and storage.

Thermal-Processing Equipment
During the early development of thermal processing over
100
C, saturated salt solutions were used for heat-transfer
purposes. The invention of pressurized retort systems with
steam heating, however, led to thermal processing of cans in
various types of retort systems. Superheated steam over
atmospheric pressure enables to reach temperatures over
100
C with the latent heat released. A typical vertical saturated steam batch retort is shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8
demonstrates the process principle of a continuous rotary
sterilizer system.
Because high pressures and temperatures are required
during the canning process, every retort system should include
well-equipped control systems. These systems include time
temperature recording devices, pressure gauge and safety

Figure 6 A general ow diagram of a canning process. Adapted from Downing, 1996. Canning operations. In: A Complete Course in Canning, Book I, II.
CTI Publications, Inc., Maryland, USA, p. 263.

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

Figure 7

167

A typical vertical saturated steam batch retort. Adapted from May (2006).

Figure 8 Process principle of a continuous rotary sterilizer system.

Adapted from Weng, Z.J., 2006. Thermal processing of canned foods. In:
Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal Food Processing New Technologies and
Quality Issues Boca Raton, CRC Press Taylor & Francis, FL, pp. 335362.

valves, and steam controlling units. Once the cans are loaded,
the lid must be closed tightly. A thermal process is applied with
a cycle of come-up, holding, and cooling times. After desired
sterility value is reached, the cooling process is carried out.
There are various types of batch retorts, such as air-steam
retorts, full-water immersion retorts, crateless retorts, raining
and sprayed water retorts, horizontal retorts, and rotary retorts.
An increase in the consumption of canned foods led to the
need for the development of new techniques that enable the
process of more containers in a limited time. Consequently,
continuous systems have been developed to produce 200
1500 containers per minute.
There are also rotary systems in addition to the continuous
cycles of retorting. These systems were designed to achieve
elevated heat penetration rates with the forced convection in the
different types of sterilizing food product (i.e., viscous foods,
liquidsolid mixtures). Those processes in which the agitation
takes place reduce the time required by forcing the natural
convection inside the containers and increasing the heat-transfer
coefcient for a safe process with less demand to heat exposure.
The retort systems operating at overpressure conditions also
meet market demand for the use of microwaveable glass or
plastic containers, leading to higher quality products.

168

HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Canning

Conclusion

Further Reading

Although canning is one of the most basic and widely

commercialized preservation methods applied in food processing, some inherent disadvantages have caused new
processes to emerge. With market demand to consume better
quality, value-added products together with safety, new
thermal and nonthermal processes, such as aseptic processing,
ohmic heating, microwaveradio frequency, high-pressure
processing (HP), pulsed electric eld (PEF), and pulsed light or
ultraviolet light, have emerged for possible uses in food processing. Thermally assisted technologies such as PEF and HP are
effective when integrated with other thermal processes, and
therefore, are used in conjunction with other thermal systems,
such as aseptic processing, to extend shelf life. Compared with
these new emerging technologies, retort technology, as applied
in canning, has less controllable processing conditions because
of the resistance to heat-penetration and heat-transfer medium.
Nevertheless, rotary systems especially in the processing of
liquid and solidliquid mixture foods have helped obtain
better quality products. Future developments in retort technology might include the following:

Azizi, A., 1999. Heat treatment of foods thermal processing required for canning. In:
Robinson, R.K., Batt, C.A., Patel, P.D. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology.
Elsevier Ltd, New York, NY, pp. 10081016.
Bigelow, W.D., Bohart, G.S., Richardson, A.C., Ball, C.O., 1920. Heat Penetration in
Processing Canned Foods. Bulleting No. 16L. National Canners` Association,
Washington, DC.
Britt, I.J., 2008. Thermal processing. In: Tucker, G. (Ed.), Food Biodeterioration and
Preservation. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ, pp. 6771.
Chen, G., Campanella, O.G., Peleg, M., 2011. Calculation of the total lethality of
conductive heat in cylindrical cans sterilization using linear and non linear survival
kinetic models. Food Research International 44, 10121022.
Cowell, N.D., 2007. More light on the dawn of canning. Food Technology 61 (5),
4045.
Downing, 1996. Canning operations. Book I, II. In: A Complete Course in Canning. CTI
Publications, Inc, Maryland, USA, p. 263.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation), 1988. Manual on sh canning. http://www.
fao.org/DOCREP/003/T0007E/T0007E00.HTM (September-2012).
FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), 2010. Low acid canned food manufacturers.
Part 2-Processes/Procedures, Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement and Criminal
Investigations.
Featherstone, S., 2012. A review of development and challenges of thermal processing
over the past 200 years a tribute to Nicolas Appert. Food Research International
24, 156160.
Fellows, P.J., 1988. Food Processing Technology (Principles and Practice). Ellis
Horwood Ltd, Chichester, England.
Gavin, A., Wedding, L.M., 1995. Canned Foods: Principles of Thermal Process Control,
Acidication and Container Closure Evaluation. The Food Processors Institute,
Washington, DC.
Holdsworth, S.D., 1997. Thermal Processing of Packaged Foods. Chapman and Hall,
Blackie Academic and Professional, London, UK.
Holdsworth, S.D., 2004. Optimizing the safety and quality of thermally-processed
packaged foods. In: Richardsson, P. (Ed.), Improving the Thermal Processing of
Foods. Woodhead Publishing-CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 327.
Karaduman, M., Uyar, R., Erdogdu, F., 2012. Toroid cans an experimental and
computational study for process innovation. Journal of Food Engineering 111, 613.
Larousse, J., Brown, B.E., 1997. Food Canning Technology. Wiley, VCH Inc, New
York, NY.
May, N.S., 2006. Retort technology. In: Richardson, P. (Ed.), Thermal Technologies in
Food Processing. Woodhead Publishing Ltd., Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 727.
Palop, A., Martinez, A., 2006. pH-Assisted thermal processing. In: Sun, D.-W. (Ed.),
Thermal Food Processing New Technologies and Quality Issues. CRC Press
Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 567596.
Ramaswamy, H.S., Chen, C.R., 2004. Canning principles. In: Hui, Y.H., Ghazala, S.,
Graham, D.M., Murrell, K.D., Nip, W.-K. (Eds.), Handbook of Vegetable Preservation
and Processing. Marcel Dekker Inc, New York, NY, pp. 6790.
Simpson, R., Teixeira, A.A., Almonacid, S., 2007. Advances with intelligent on-line
retort control and automation in thermal processing of canned foods. Food Control
18, 821833.
Teixeira, A.A., 1999. Conventional thermal processing (canning). In: Encyclopedia of
Life Support Systems. Food Engineering, vol. III, pp. 419428.
Teixeira, A.A., 2006. Simulating thermal food processes using deterministic models.
In: Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal Food Processing New Technologies and Quality
Issues. CRC Press Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 73106.
Thippareddi, H., Sanchez, M., 2006. Thermal processing of meat products. In:
Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal Food Processing New Technologies and Quality Issues.
CRC Press Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 155196.
Tucker, G., 2006. Thermal processing of ready meals. In: Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal
Food Processing New Technologies and Quality Issues. CRC Press Taylor &
Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 363385.
Varma, M.N., Kannan, A., 2006. CFD studies on natural convective heating of canned food
in conical and cylindrical containers. Journal of Food Engineering 77, 10241036.
Weng, Z.J., 2006. Thermal processing of canned foods. In: Sun, D.-W. (Ed.), Thermal
Food Processing New Technologies and Quality Issues. CRC Press Taylor &
Francis, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 335362.

1. Improvement in agitated retorts to moderate the effects of

heating by increasing heat-transfer rate into the product
2. Use of variable retort temperatures to enhance and control
medium temperature inside the retort offering better quality
3. Optimization of the process with online process control,
and new designs of cans to improve product quality
Optimization studies applying computational methods
become prominent among these possibilities. These studies
generally focused on determining variable retort temperature
proles and controlling the process conditions uctuations to
lling gaps in the conventional thermal processes. Additionally, new container designs to reduce the destruction effect of
heat also have been reported (e.g., the development of toroid
cans to provide increased rate of heat transfer).

Acknowledgment
This study was part of a research supported by the Scientic and
Technical Research Council of Turkey, project no: 110O066
(TOVAG-Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Research Grant
Committee).

See also: Geobacillus stearothermophilus (Formerly Bacillus

stearothermophilus); Clostridium: Clostridium botulinum; Heat
Treatment of Foods: Spoilage Problems Associated with
Canning; Heat Treatment of Foods: Ultra-High-Temperature
Treatments; Heat Treatment of Foods Principles of
Pasteurization; Thermal Processes: Pasteurization; Thermal
Processes, Commercial Sterility (Retort).