PACKAGING EVALUATION FOR HIGH-PRESSURE HIGH- TEMPERATURE STERILIZATION OF SHELF-STABLE FOODS TATIANA KOUTCHMA 1,7 , YOONSEOK SONG 2 , ILONA SETIKAITE 1,3 , PABLO JULIANO 4,5 , GUSTAVOV. BARBOSA-CÁNOVAS 4 , C. PATRICK DUNNE 6 and EDUARDO PATAZCA 1 1 Illinois Institute of Technology Summit-Agro, IL, 60501 2 Food and Drug Administration National Center for Food Safety and Technology Summit-Agro, IL, 60501 3 Quaker-Tropicana-Gatorade PepsiCo Barrington, IL 4 Department of Biological Systems Engineering Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164-6120 5 Innovative Foods Centre Food Science Australia Werribee, VIC, 3030, Australia 6 US Army Research Development & Engineering Command Natick, MA 01760 Accepted for Publication July 8, 2008 ABSTRACT The integrity of flexible packages during high-pressure (HP) sterilization is of critical importance to the safety and shelf life of food products. For HP-sterilization, packaged products need to be preheated to a target tempera- ture before HP processing. Preheating efficiency can be affected by the packaging material utilized. The objectives were to quantify the impact of packaging materials on the rate of heat penetration into foods during preheat- ing, and to evaluate the effects of preheating and HP processing (at 688 MPa and 121C) on package integrity, oxygen permeability and mechanical 7 Corresponding author. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 93 Stone Road West, Guelph, ON, N1G 5C9 Canada. TEL: 519-780-8083; FAX: 519-829-2600; EMAIL: koutchmat@agr.gc.ca Journal of Food Process Engineering •• (2009) ••–••. All Rights Reserved. © Copyright the Authors Journal Compilation © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-4530.2008.00328.x 1