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Modelling of Thermal Sterilisation of High-Moisture Snack Foods: Feasibility Analysis and Optimization

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Abstract

High-moisture snacks, such as steamed buns and rice cakes, are traditional and popular in Asian countries. However, their shelf life is short, primarily due to microbial spoilage. Current manufacturing methods address this shortcoming through the use of chemical preservatives. To satisfy consumers’ demand for preservative-free food, thermal sterilisation of a model high-moisture snack (steamed rice cakes) is investigated in this work. Bacillus cereus spores are heat-resistant pathogens typically found in rice products; hence, they constitute a suitable candidate to assess the effectiveness of thermal sterilisation. A validated combination of predicted temperature profile of rice cakes based on thermal properties extracted experimentally with thermal inactivation kinetics of B. cereus spores allows us to assess the sensitivity of processing conditions to sterilisation efficiency. Using both experimentation and modelling, it is shown that enhancement of heat transfer by improving convection from the heating medium (either water or steam) has a limited effect on inactivation due to the intrinsic kinetics of spore inactivation.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre ‘Agents of Change’ (IC130100011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

    Jing Ai, Michael J. Gidley & Mark S. Turner

  2. School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

    Torsten Witt & Mark S. Turner

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

    Jason R. Stokes

  4. Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Alameda de Mazarredo 14, 48009, Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain

    Mauricio R. Bonilla

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  1. Jing Ai
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  2. Torsten Witt
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  6. Mauricio R. Bonilla
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Correspondence to Mauricio R. Bonilla.

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Ai, J., Witt, T., Gidley, M.J. et al. Modelling of Thermal Sterilisation of High-Moisture Snack Foods: Feasibility Analysis and Optimization. Food Bioprocess Technol 11, 979–990 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-018-2075-8

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