Thermal processing validation

Thermal process validation is the provision of evidence to demonstrate that a sterilisation or pasteurisation process is capable of delivering a target lethality (heat process) to the point of least lethality within a food product when processed under conditions most conducive to microbial survival.

Joy Gaze and Martin George explain how microbial surrogates are regularly used in processing trials to determine the lethality of a process and assess its potential effectiveness against pathogens and other problem microorganisms.