Process validation – research and services

Essential to the industrial application of new heat processes is the validation to prove that the method delivers a stable and safe product when used in production. Thermal processing is a core technique for assuring product safety by killing microorganisms, and methods for assessing thermal process safety need to be continuously developed as the food and drink industries develop new products and product formats in a bid to remain competitive. A new member-funded project is addressing the development and application of new and improved process validation methods.

Building on long standing expertise

Validation procedures can utilise both physical measurement of time/temperature and the measurement of the death of relevant organisms to give the food processor confidence in the system being used. The new research is building on our long-standing expertise in this area, particularly in the area of process surrogates - the use of non-pathogenic microorganisms that have the same death or inactivation kinetics as the pathogenic organisms of interest. With the advent of novel thermal and non-thermal preservation techniques, this requires a greater understanding of the metabolic characteristics of both the target organisms and the surrogate.

Contact: Joy Gaze
+44(0)1386 842064
joy.gaze@campdenbri.co.uk