THERMAL INACTIVATION OF Clostridium sporogenes PA 3679 AND Bacillus stearothermophilus 1518 IN LOW‐ACID HOME‐CANNED FOODS

One of the requirements for establishing thermal processes for canning low-acid foods is the confirmation of the calculated processes obtained from heat penetration data by carrying out an inoculated pack study. The results presented in this paper confirm the processes for home canning low-acid foods at 15 psig suggested by Zottola et al. (JFS-1978) and Nordsiden et al. (JFS-1978). Two heat resistant spore suspensions were used in the inoculated pack, Bacillus stearothermophilus 1518 and Clostridium sporogenes PA 3679. Results obtained using four representative low-acid foods showed the following times at 15 psig were such that no recovery of the test spores, inoculated at 10,000 per container, was observed; peas 10 mm, carrots 7 min, cream-style corn 5.5 min and beef stew with vegetables 15 min.