Canning and Fish Packaging Technology

Unit 4 - Thermal process for canned foods

4.5.Heat Resistance of Microorganisms
Bacteria or its spores subjected to moist heat at lethal temperatures show exponential decrease in their numbers i.e. they exhibit logarithmic order of death. The higher the temperature of sterilization, the greater is the rate of thermal destruction. For an example the killing of bacteria by exposing them for 10 minutes at 121.1^oC is approximately equivalent to 100 minutes at 101^oC.