Principles of Pasteurization
RA Wilbey, The University of Reading, Reading, UK
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Historical Origins
Cooking is an age-old method of preparing many traditional
foodstuffs, and for centuries, it was generally appreciated that
cooked products would normally take longer to putrefy than if
they were left raw.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there was great
interest in understanding the mechanism of putrefaction. Laz-
zaro Spallanzani demonstrated that putrefaction may not occur
in a heated sealed flask of an infusion, but that aerial
contamination could result in putrefaction. The presence of
microorganisms was demonstrated, and it was recognized that
there was a possible division into organisms that could be
killed by boiling and those that would survive this heat treat-
ment. Subsequent experiments by Franz Schutz in the early
nineteenth century demonstrated that it was not the air itself
that caused spontaneous putrefaction, but rather a contami-
nant carried in the air. Theodore Schwann was carrying out
similar work at the same time.
Methods for the preservation of foodstuffs were developed in
parallel with this pioneering work on the basic understanding of
why foods spoil. Carl Wilhelm Scheele used heat for the
conservation of vinegar, and Nicholas Appert developed
a method to preserve foods by heating in cans. In 1824 William
Dewees recommended that milk for infants be heated to near to
boiling (but not boiled) and then cooled as preparation for
infant feeding.
The credit for the development of a mild method of pro-
cessing foods, now particularly associated with milk, has been
given to Louis Pasteur, after whom the pasteurization process
was named. Pasteur had, among his many interests, an interest
in fermentations. The poor hygiene conditions associated with
the production of food and beverages at that time often led to
unwanted fermentations, causing putrefaction and loss of
product. His experiments confirmed that fermentations were
not spontaneous but rather were the result of microbial
metabolism. Although some of his earlier work was with lactic
fermentations, most of his work in this field was based on
alcoholic fermentations, brought about by yeasts. The conver-
sion of ethanol to acetic acid was demonstrated as being
brought about by bacteria, subsequently classified as Aceto-
bacter spp. In an acid medium such as wine, both yeasts and
acetobacter could be destroyed by relatively mild heat treat-
ments at about 55
C in closed vessels.
Although Pasteur’s work on beer, wine, and vinegar laid the
foundations for hygienic processing, his complementary work
on the relation between specific organisms and disease also
aided the recognition of the public health implications of
hygiene and of heat treatments.
By the late-nineteenth century, the economic benefits from
improving the shelf life of milk and other products were
appreciated, although the microbiological and public health
implications of pasteurization were not fully understood.
Pasteurization of wine was adopted in both France and the
United States and is still used for some wines, although
Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, Volume 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384730-0.00159-2
filtration, higher alcohol levels, and better production hygiene
have largely displaced heat treatment for this product.
The heat treatment of milk on a commercial scale did not
develop until the end of the nineteenth century, with the
production of commercial pasteurizers in Germany and
Denmark. The earlier treatment systems were aimed at
improving the storage life of milk, often using simple contin-
uous-flow techniques to reduce costs. The realization that milk
was a potential carrier for diseases such as tuberculosis led to
the development of a low-temperature long-time (LTLT) batch
process, the first commercial plant being installed by Charles
North in New York in 1907. Commercial in-bottle LTLT
pasteurization of milk, pioneered by Charles North in 1911,
although capable of producing a high-quality product virtually
free of postpasteurization contamination, was too expensive
and unable to compete in the marketplace. It was not until
1922 that legal recognition was given to pasteurization in
the United Kingdom, when the term was defined in the Milk
and Dairies (Amendment) Act, using an LTLT process at
62.8–65.5
C for a minimum of 30 min.
LTLT pasteurization was the first safe method adopted, but
the processing of milk was revolutionized by the invention in
the United Kingdom of the plate heat exchanger, which was
capable of recovering some of the heat from the hot pasteurized
product. The development of a modular heat exchanger that
could be relatively easily cleaned, together with a microbio-
logically effective holding tube system and a flow diversion
valve enabled milk to be heat treated with safety on a far larger
scale than had been possible with the batch-based LTLT system.
With better appreciation of the thermal death characteristics of
pathogens, this continuous process was able to take advantage
of higher process temperatures with a correspondingly shorter
hold time and became known as the high-temperature short-
time (HTST) process. The European Commission set the
minimum heat treatment at 72
C for 15 s. It has been sug-
gested that 15 s was originally chosen as the minimum time to
allow an adequate safety margin for the response rate of the
temperature sensing and control system at that time.
Subsequent developments in the design of process equipment
have led to the construction of pasteurization plants that may be
cleaned in place, with much greater thermal efficiency and with
much more sensitive and responsive instrumentation and control
systems. It is now technically possible to pasteurize at higher
temperatures with little or no hold, the so-called flash processes.
Basic Aims of Pasteurization
The basic aim of pasteurization is summarized by the defini-
tion adopted by the International Dairy Federation (IDF):
Pasteurization is a process applied to a product with the aim
of avoiding public health hazards arising from pathogenic
micro-organisms associated with milk by heat treatment which
is consistent with minimal chemical, physical and organoleptic
changes in the product.
169
170 HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Pasteurization
Time (min)
100
LTLT
10
HTST
0.1
60 70 80
Temperature (°C)
Figure 1 Time–temperature conditions needed for destruction of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis in milk, together with minimum pasteurization
conditions.
This definition would be equally applicable to other
commodities if one were to substitute that product for milk in
the definition.
To achieve the public health objective of pasteurization in
a particular product, it is essential to be aware of the pathogens
associated, or potentially associated, with that product. The
thermal death characteristics of the organisms in that product
also must be known.
In most of the early work, the death characteristics were
expressed in terms of a temperature–time combination that
appeared to destroy the target pathogen. In the case of milk,
tuberculosis was recognized as a major disease associated with
milk consumption and Mycobacterium tuberculosis was found to
be the most heat-resistant pathogen normally associated with
milk. Temperature–time combinations needed to destroy M.
tuberculosis were published by North in 1911, North and Park in
1927, Hammer in 1928, and Dahlberg in 1932; these data are
included in Figure 1.
At that time, these data enabled safer process conditions to be
set up for LTLT and subsequently HTST processes. The methods
used are open to the criticism that it is not possible to demon-
strate the absence of an organism, only to fail to detect it. With
better understanding of the kinetics of thermal death rates,
however, more quantitative data may now be obtained and the
safety of a given process be predicted with greater certainty.
Thermal Death of Microorganisms
When organisms are subjected to a moist heat above their
normal temperature range, a number of effects may be noted,
as illustrated in Figure 2. With the relatively short heat
Log number of survivors
A
B
C
Heat treatment temperature
Figure 2 Effect of heat treatment temperature for a fixed time on the
survival of organisms in a bacterial culture.
treatment times normally associated with pasteurization,
temperatures just above the normal growth temperature (zone
A in Figure 2) will have little or no effect on the number of
survivors, although there may be a risk of bacteria becoming
more resistant to subsequent treatments. With further increase
in temperature (zone B), a small lethal effect will become
evident. At higher temperatures (zone C), which are exploited
in pasteurization processes, the logarithm of the number of
survivors is inversely proportional to the exposure time at that
temperature.
Thus, for a given temperature within the zone C, the time
taken for a tenfold reduction in survivors (i.e., the D value) may
be obtained. D values are expressed in minutes or seconds and
must be accompanied by the temperature (e.g., D72 for 72
C).
D values are an approximation for a given strain of a species,
the death kinetics for which can include a tail of more
temperature-resistant organisms. Thus, for more accurate work,
a more sophisticated model may be appropriate, but for most
purposes, the D value concept is adequate.
The D value will decrease with increasing temperature. The
rate of change usually is given as a z value, the z value being the
change in temperature required to give a tenfold change in the
D value. Typical z values for mesophiles are 4–8
C in high aw
systems; the data in Figure 1 for M. tuberculosis imply a z value
of 6.3
C. By comparison, bacterial spores often have a z value
approximating to 10
C at temperatures above 100
C, with
most spores being able to withstand pasteurization. Care is
needed in using z values as they can vary with temperature and,
as with the D values, also will vary with the substrate. For
example, changes in pH and aw can produce major changes in
the thermal resistance of organisms. Microorganisms are less
susceptible to heat when the aw is lowered. Reducing the pH
normally will increase the susceptibility to LTLT treatments, but
the effect may not be significant under HTST conditions.
Yeasts and molds are primarily of interest as spoilage
organisms, although molds may produce mycotoxins. The
typical vegetative forms normally are more heat-labile than
many spoilage bacteria, but the ascospores may be more heat
resistant, although much less so than bacterial spores.
 HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Pasteurization 171

Table 1 Examples of the heat resistance of some microorganisms More recent work found no survivors following heat treatment
(estimated from various sources) of inoculated milks under slightly more severe conditions than
the minimum required under the current regulations.
Organism Medium D72 value (s) z value (
C)
Although the epidemiological evidence supports the safety
Aspergillus niger a Apple juice 0.76 6 of pasteurization processes, refinements in the methods for
Enterococcus faecium Milk 3 2 recovering and quantifying specific organisms will lead to
Enterococcus faecium Ham 1.4 7 a more precise view of thermal death rates and hence the
Escherechia coli Milk 1 6.5 inherent risks.
Lactobacillus Orange juice 2 5
fermentum
Lactobacillus spp.b Beer 10 8.6
Saccharomyces Orange juice 0.02 4.7
Modern Pasteurization Processes
cerevisiae
Saccharomyces Soft drink 0.6 10 Both batch and continuous processes are used in the pasteur-
cerevisiae b ization of foods (Figure 3).
Staphylococcus aureus Milk 0.6 5.1 In-tank batch pasteurization continues to be used for
Streptococcus Recombined 0.04 3.7 specialty products and small-scale manufacture (e.g., artisanal
thermophilus milk ice cream processing). The main risks are those of cross-
a contamination from raw materials, the processing environ-
Conidiospores.
b
Heat-resistant strain. ment, and the relatively slow cooling rates that may permit
growth of survivors that could contribute to spoilage rates.
The in-container methods may be divided between those
Table 1 gives a range of D and z values for microorganisms applied to unsealed and sealed containers, the former being
to illustrate the range that will occur. These values must be employed for a few specialized products in which some surface
taken as indicative only, for the reasons already outlined. evaporation is desirable (e.g., clotted cream and egg-based
Although significant numbers of pathogens should not desserts) and for which there must be zero shear during the
survive the pasteurization process, there is a chance of survival of cooling process. The heat treatment normally exceeds that
some heat-resistant organisms, if the original numbers are very required for pasteurization alone, and the main risks are those
high or if some protective mechanism is operating. The micro- from contamination during the cooling process. The pasteuri-
bial quality of the raw material and its hygienic handling thus are zation of bottled beer and soft drinks in sealed containers may
also important in limiting the challenge to the heat treatment be carried out on a large scale using tunnel pasteurizers up to
system. In milk pasteurization, a treatment at 72
C for 15 s will 20 m long, during which the product is conveyed under a series
reduce the total count by approximately two orders of magni- of jets spraying progressively hotter then cooler water to affect
tude, and thus the higher the original numbers, the higher the the heating, holding, and cooling parts of the cycle. Although
number of survivors, and hence the potentially shorter shelf life. the relatively low heat transfer rates require an LTLT approach
This gross approximation cannot take into account the post and can result in some flavor changes, this form of pasteuri-
pasteurization contamination or the survival of heat-resistant zation has the advantage that the sealed container carries a very
enzymes originating from the initial microflora. Recently, there low risk of postprocess contamination. Risks are further
were concerns about the heat resistance of Listeria monocytogenes reduced by ensuring that the cooling water is of high micro-
and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Under normal biological quality (e.g., by hyperchlorination).
conditions, the inactivation of L. monocytogenes appears to be The heat treatment of many canned acid fruits (pH < 4.5)
adequate. Less information is available about the thermal may be regarded as pasteurization because the heat treatment is
destruction of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. In 1997, sufficient only to inactivate vegetative spoilage organisms,
however, an IDF expert group concluded that this risk could be surviving spores being inhibited by the low pH.
‘accepted’ until more data were available in terms of the thermal Continuous processes are preferred for large-scale pasteur-
death curves relating to naturally contaminated milks and heat ization, particularly for liquid products. For low-viscosity
treatments as well as the potential link with Crohn’s disease. homogeneous liquids, the most commonly used process is

Pasteurisation

Batch Continuous

In–tank In–container Plate Tubular Scraped surface

Unsealed Sealed

Figure 3 Types of pasteurization process.

172 HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Pasteurization
based on plate heat exchangers, which are essentially flattened
tubes made up from pairs of stainless steel plates separated by
elastomeric seals. This creates a large surface area and relatively
thin gap of 2–6 mm so that rapid heat transfer under turbulent
flow conditions may be achieved. The plates are assembled into
a frame in a mixture of parallel and series flow configurations to
give the desired heat transfer characteristics. In many cases,
a proportion of the heat used in achieving the pasteurization
temperature may be recovered and used to preheat the incoming
raw product, a process known as regeneration. Regeneration
efficiencies in excess of 98% are now possible, the limits being
capital cost and the effects of the increased heat exchange surface
area on product quality. The simplest system for regeneration,
illustrated in Figure 4, uses a single pumping system so that the
pressure on the raw side of the heat exchanger plate is higher
than that of the hot pasteurized product, and thus the integrity of
the plate is a critical factor in the safety of the process. More
sophisticated systems use a second pump and a means of
maintaining a higher pressure in the downstream part of the
plant. Whichever pumping system is adopted, the flow must be
constant, that is, not increasing if the pressure drops. Positive
displacement pumps are preferred, but centrifugal pumps may
be employed if accompanied by a flow control valve. In cases in
which homogenizers are being used, these may provide the
second pumping system.
Tubular heat exchangers have wider clearances than with
plates and can cope more readily with viscous and particulate
foods. This design will withstand higher pressures and is less
sensitive to fouling, but it has less effective heat transfer,
although this can be improved by adopting an annular design.
Scraped surface heat exchangers (SSHE) are large-diameter
tubular heat exchangers, containing a coaxial rotating shaft
Hot water
4 7
5
13
12 4 6
Chilled 2
water
1 5
3
1
2
Raw material
Figure 4 Flow diagram for a simple HTST pasteurizer. Key: 1 Balance tank; 2 Feed pump; 3 Flow controller; 4 Preheating section and regenerative
cooler; 5 Homogenizer (optional); 6 Final heating section; 7 Hot water set; 8 Holding tube; 9 Hot product temperature sensor; 10 Controller and recorders;
11 Flow diversion line; 12 Final cooling; 13 Cooled pasteurized product exit.
carrying blades that scrape the heat exchange surface, ensuring
a rapid turnover of material on the surface and preventing the
buildup of films that inhibit heat transfer. Although SSHEs are
effective in terms of heat transfer coefficients, their high capital
and running costs limit their use to processes in which the other
heat exchangers are not appropriate (e.g., cooling of fat spreads
and the simultaneous freezing and whipping of ice cream). The
use of SSHEs requires rotary seals on the shafts, which can add
to cleaning problems.
Estimating the Lethality of a Pasteurization Process
By using the appropriate D and z values, it is possible to estimate
the risks associated with a temperature–time combination –
that is, the probable level of survivors for a given level of
contamination in the raw material. This is easy for a batch
process, such as with LTLT pasteurization, because the hold is
easily measured and the contribution of the heating and cooling
stages to the overall lethality of the process can be relatively
small. With HTST processes, however, the temperatures are
higher and the heating and cooling stages may make a signifi-
cant contribution to the overall lethality of the process. It is
essential that the process be characterized in terms of temper-
ature and minimum residence time. Minimum time is critical as
the microbiological risk (particularly the public health risk) is
associated with the minimum heat treatment given to any
particle in the product. Because most HTST processes are
continuous, the flow characteristics of the system must be taken
into account. From a microbiological viewpoint, turbulent flow
in the pasteurizer will give the best results as there will be
a narrower spread of flow rates and hence residence times in the
10
11
9
3
8
 HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Pasteurization
equipment. Under turbulent flow conditions, the minimum
residence time can be up to 0.83 of the average residence time,
whereas under streamline flow conditions, the minimum resi-
dence time is only 0.5 the average. In practice, slower flow rates
may be needed to conserve desirable product characteristics or
to avoid excessive pressures.
Once the plant has been characterized, it is possible to
analyze the process quantitatively in relation to a given risk. One
approach has been to define a pasteurization unit (PU) appro-
priate to the product and its most critical contaminants. A PU of
1 min at 65
C (z ¼ 10
C) has been suggested for acid foods.
The brewing industry has used a PU defined as 1 min at 60
C (z
z 7
C) with 6–15 PU being used to stabilize bottled beer. A
PU for safe HTST treatment of milk, the P*, has been suggested
by Kessler, taking 1 P* as equal to 15 s at 72
C (z ¼ 8
C). The
implications for each second of a heat treatment are illustrated
in Figure 5, where a higher z value of 10
C is also included to
illustrate the effect of the z value on any estimation. Using
a higher estimate for the z value could lead to an underestimate
of the lethality at higher temperatures and vice versa.
Figure 5 shows that the contribution of temperatures below
65
C to overall lethality in an HTST process is so small that it
may be ignored. At higher temperatures, however, the effect of
the temperature during heating and cooling becomes more
important, so that by 90
C, the total heat treatment is well in
excess of the minimum safe treatment even without a hold.
Heating and cooling rates are typically 1–3
C s1 except in
direct steam heating systems.
Although the primary concern in pasteurization is to obtain
a safe food, this is irrelevant if the sensory quality of the food is
reduced excessively, either by overcooking or due to the
persistence of other less temperature–labile factors (microbio-
logical or biochemical). Cooked flavors may be acceptable in
some foods (e.g., clotted cream) but not in others (e.g., wine).
PU 7 2 °
100
z = 10 °C
z = 8 °C
10
1 the medium is lowered. Thus, more severe heat treatments
0.1
0.01
70 80 90
Temperature (°C)
Figure 5 Lethal effect of a 1 s exposure at typical pasteurization
temperatures.
173
Heat treatments may bring about undesirable changes in
the stability or functional properties of food products, often
related to protein denaturation. In milk, the denaturation of
agglutinin (an immunoglobulin fraction) reduces the rate at
which cream forms in milk on standing, with the denaturation
being more pronounced when more severe heat treatments are
used so that less cream separates from the milk. Avoiding
overtreatment has been an important consideration in the past
when processing milk for bottling, in cases in which the
consumer has associated cream separation with milk quality,
but it is not relevant to the production of homogenized milks
in which case cream separation would indicate a processing
failure. Similarly, the protein denaturation associated with
pasteurization of liquid egg white reduces the foaming prop-
erties of the product slightly, giving less volume or a longer
whipping time than the raw egg white.
Protein denaturation may be used beneficially to indicate
that a satisfactory heat treatment has been given, for example,
by using an assay of a suitable enzyme occurring naturally in
the product. The indicator enzyme should be denatured under
conditions slightly more severe than those needed for
microbial stability. Ideally, the activity of the indicator
enzyme should not be subject to wide variation with season
or source, or be influenced by varying levels of microbial
contaminants.
Alkaline phosphatase is denatured under slightly more
severe conditions than are required for destruction of M. tuber-
culosis, so the absence of alkaline phosphatase activity is gener-
ally used as an indicator for satisfactory pasteurization of milk.
European Commission milk hygiene regulations originally
specified that pasteurized milk should have a negative reaction
in the test for alkaline phosphatase and a positive reaction for
lactoperoxidase, thus setting minimum and maximum condi-
tions for the heat treatment as lactoperoxidase is deactivated at
78–80
C for 15 s depending on the heat exchanger design.
The pasteurization of liquid egg in the United Kingdom
(minimum 64.4
C for 2.5 min) is not sufficiently severe to
inactivate alkaline phosphatase but will denature aamylase,
whereas the milder treatment required in the United States
(minimum 60
C for 1.75 min) will leave residual a–amylase
activity. The egg proteins are more heat labile than those in
milk, which restricts the temperatures that may be used in
HTST processes due to fouling and protein precipitation,
conditions favoring the use of tubular heat exchangers.
Bacteria are more resistant to heat treatment when the aw of
normally are used for the pasteurization of sweetened prod-
ucts, such as ice cream and dessert products. Minimum heat
treatments for ice cream may be 66
C for 30 min, 72
C
for 10 min, or 80
C for 15 s. In cases in which the ingredients
already have been heat treated, enzyme assays may give
misleading results.
In fruit juices, the pH is usually below 4.5, so that growth of
pathogenic bacteria will not usually be supported, although
death of contaminant organisms will not be instant. Yeasts and
some lactobacilli may grow and cause spoilage of the juice, and
molds may grow at the surface. Heat treatments to eliminate
yeasts and lactobacilli are more severe than for the elimination
of vegetative pathogens (e.g., 70
C for 60 s, or 85
C for 30 s
for citrus juices).
174 HEAT TREATMENT OF FOODS j Principles of Pasteurization
Survival of enzymes can cause problems for the storage of
fruit juices. In apple juice extraction, polyphenol oxidase will
cause rapid browning of cold extracted juices if the juice is not
immediately treated with antioxidants, such as ascorbic acid or
sulfur dioxide. HTST treatment at 89
C for 90 s will denature
polyphenol oxidase as well as potential spoilage organisms.
Thus, a check for color development in the presence of oxygen
may be used as a quality criterion.
In citrus juices, the presence of pectinase will lead to
a breakdown of the cloud associated with the fresh juices. HTST
treatment at 90
C for 10 s or 85
C for 4 min will denature the
pectinase. For many fruit juices, including apple and orange,
the juice is extracted in the country of origin, heat treated, and
concentrated with the potential for flavor compounds being
recovered from the condensate. The concentrate is then stored
and transported in bulk before reconstitution and final heat
treatment.
See also: Acetobacter; Eggs: Microbiology of Egg Products;
Listeria: Introduction; Milk and Milk Products: Microbiology of
Liquid Milk; Microbiology of Cream and Butter; Mycobacterium;
Natural Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Food; Microbial Spoilage
of Eggs and Egg Products; Spoilage Problems: Problems
Caused by Bacteria; Wines: Microbiology of Winemaking.
Further Reading
Cunningham, F.E., 1995. Egg product pasteurization. In: Stadelman, W.J.,
Cotterill, O.J. (Eds.), Egg Science and Technology, fourth ed. Food Products Press,
New York, pp. 289–322.
Dairy, U.K., 2006. Code of Practice on HTST Pasteurization. Dairy, London. www.
dairyuk.org/component/docman/doc_download/3938-co (accessed 2.11.2012).
Dubos, R.J., 1960. Luis Pasteur: Free Lance of Science. Da Capo Press, New York.
Holdsworth, S.D., Simpson, R., 2008. Thermal Processing of Packaged Foods, second
ed. Springer, New York.
IDF, 1986. Bulletin 200: Monograph on Pasteurized Milk. International Dairy Federa-
tion, Brussels.
Hammer, P., Knappstein, K., Hahn, G., 1998. Signicance of Mycobacterium
paratuberculosis in milk. Bulletin of the IDF 330, 12–16.
Lewis, M.J., Deeth, H.C., 2009. Heat treatment of milk. In: Tamime, A.Y. (Ed.), Milk
Processing and Quality Management. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 168–204.
Lynch, D., Jordan, K.N., Kelly, P.M., Freyne, T., Murphy, P.M., 2007. Heat
sensitivity of Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis in milk under pilot
plant pasteurization conditions. International Journal of Dairy Technology 60,
98–104.
O’Connor-Fox, E.S.C., Yiu, P.M., Ingledew, W.M., 1991. Pasteurization: thermal death
of microbes in brewing. MBAA Technical Quarterly 28, 67–77.
Rees, J.A.G., Bettison, J., 1991. Processing and Packaging of Heat Preserved Foods.
Blackie, Glasgow.