Okuzeka
Food Science & Technology vocabulary · Preservation and Heat Treatment

Sterilization

Meaning in food science & technology, with examples

/ˌsterələˈzeɪʃən/nounCore term

In food science & technology, sterilization means: A treatment, usually with high heat, that destroys microorganisms and their spores so that a food can be stored at room temperature without spoiling or becoming unsafe.

In Turkish: sterilizasyon

How it is used

Used for canned foods, ready meals in pouches and equipment. In food plants it usually means 'commercial sterility': the product is not absolutely free of microbes, but nothing can grow in it under normal storage. Low-acid canned foods are typically processed in a retort at about 121 °C.

Example sentences

  1. Sterilization in the retort takes 40 minutes for the 400 g cans.

  2. We validated the sterilization process with temperature probes placed at the cold spot of the can.

Common collocations

  • commercial sterilization
  • retort sterilization
  • sterilization temperature
  • sterilize equipment
  • sterilization value
  • canningPreserving food by sealing it in airtight containers such as cans or jars and heating it enough to destroy the microorganisms that could grow during storage.
  • Clostridium botulinumA spore-forming bacterium that grows without oxygen and produces botulinum toxin, one of the strongest known poisons, which causes the rare but potentially fatal illness botulism.
  • pasteurizationA mild heat treatment that kills most disease-causing and many spoilage microorganisms while keeping the taste and nutrients of the food as unchanged as possible.
  • D-valueThe time needed at a given temperature to kill 90 percent of a population of a particular microorganism, which is a one-log reduction.
  • heat treatmentAny process that uses heat to make food safe, extend its shelf life or change its properties, such as pasteurization, sterilization, blanching or cooking.

More terms: Preservation and Heat Treatment

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: