Lethality or the F value is a measure used to represent the effect of thermal treatment on foods, and denotes the intensity of such a treatment as concerns the death of a certain target microorganism. The Ball method is very useful and versatile in calculating the intensity of a thermal sterilization process carried out in retorts, based on the heat penetration parameters, jh and fh, specific for each product. The objective of this study was to verify the applicability of the Ball method in calculating the F0 values for products sterilized in steam retorts, previously vented using water. Such venting is an alternative procedure based on expelling the air by filling the equipment with water. The F0 values calculated for both venting processes (water and conventional) using the Ball method, were compared with the F0 values calculated using the Generic Method. For the processes vented using water, the F0 values calculated using the Ball method have always been lower than those obtained by Generic method. The differences in F0 value obtained between the two venting processes (water and conventional) using the two calculation methods were similar, confirming the applicability of the Ball method in sterilization processes in water vented steam retorts.
Thermal processing; Ball method; Lethality; Retort; Clostridium botulinum
