Aseptic Processing
Aseptic Processing
The basic principle of aseptic processing and packaging is the treatment of a pumpable low acid food to create a packaged shelf stable product. The process is divided into two main sections. This includes: (1) the sterilization of the food product and, (2) the packaging of the sterile product into sterile containers. Irrespective of the type of aseptic processing system, they all have certain basic attributes. For a system that uses heat to sterilize the product, these include the following:
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Product mixing and blending tanks
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A metered pump that drives the product through the system at a controlled rate
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A system designed to heat treat and sterilize the product using direct or indirect heat
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A holding tube intended to ensure that the product is exposed to the sterilization treatment for a predetermined time that is sufficient to create commercial sterility
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Equipment designed to cool the sterilized product to a temperature that allows for its packaging with hermetic closures
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A back-pressure valve to prevent backward flow of the product in the event that a pressure drop develops in the system
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A sterile surge tank used to store the sterile product prior to its packaging into sterile containers
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A flow diversion valve that allows the product to flow toward the surge tank/packaging machine or diverts it back to sterilization treatment if the packaging machine is idle and the surge tank is full
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A method to create and maintain sterility of the equipment downstream from the heating devices
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A method to sterilize the packaging prior to filling it with the sterile product
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A method to fill and hermetically seal the sterile packages within the sterile zone of the machine
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Monitoring systems to indicate if the sterility of the system is lost at any point during the production run
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Clean-in-place (CIP) and sterilize-in-place (SIP) equipment design to clean the system after a product run