【3D Process Flow】Summary Post--Pasteurization Process

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【3D Process Flow】Summary Post – Useful for learning about the process flow: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-5711616-1-1.html ---------------------------------------------------------- Pasteurization is a mild heat treatment technique designed to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms and most spoilage bacteria in foods (mainly liquid foods such as milk, juice, and beer), while preserving as much of the food’s nutritional components and sensory qualities as possible. Its core technological principle is based on the thermic lethal effect of a specific temperature-time combination. The typical process flow includes three stages: preheating, heat preservation and sterilization, and cooling. For milk, the most traditional low-temperature long-time (LTLT) processing method involves maintaining the temperature at 62.8–65.6°C for 30 minutes, while modern industry more commonly uses high-temperature short-time (HTST) processing, which involves continuous flow treatment at 72–75°C for 15–30 seconds using plate heat exchangers, followed by immediate cooling to below 4°C. The key to this technique lies in precisely controlling temperature and time to balance sterilization effects with the retention of nutrients/flavors.