In-Pack Processed Foods: Improving Quality

Key Features: reviews advances in packaging formats and processing technologies; covers innovative can designs and non-traditional packaging formats; examines the safety of in-pack processed foods, including concerns over pathogens; concludes with chapters on improving quality on particular types of in-pack processed foods, such as fish.

Part 1 Advances in packaging formats for in-pack processed foods: Advances in can design and the impact of sterilisation systems on container specifications; Retortable pouches; Improving retortable plastics; Advances in sealing and seaming and methods to detect defects. Part 2 Advances in processing technology: Advances in retort equipment and control systems; The Zinetec ShakaTM retort and product quality; Optimising the processing of flexible containers; Wireless data loggers to study heat penetration in retorted foods; Advances in indicators to monitor production of in-pack processed foods; On-line correction of in-pack processing of foods and validation of automated processes to improve product quality; Neural network method of modelling heat penetration during retorting; The role of Computational Fluid Dynamics in the improvement of rotary thermal processes. Part 3 Safety of in-pack processed foods: Emerging pathogens of concern in in-pack heat processed foods; Foodborne clostridia and the safety of in-pack preserved foods; Hazardous compounds in processed foods. Part 4 Improving the quality of particular in-pack processed products: Use of the natural food preservatives, nisin and natamycin, to reduce detrimental thermal impact on product quality; Novel methods to optimise the quality of in-pack processed fruit and vegetables: high pressure processing; Novel methods to improve the safety and quality of in-pack processed ready-to-eat meat and poultry products; Novel methods to optimise the nutritional and sensory quality of in-pack processed fish products.