Heat distribution test for water spray retort

hi!

we already had result of heat distribution test of pouch tuna using our smallest pouch, 180 x 230 mm(500 grams). but one inspector asked why we used the smallest pouch and not the biggest (300 x 420 mm, 3.0 kg.)? the inspector said that in terms of coverage of the holes, the bigger pouch has to cover a lot compared to smaller one.

should we consider the inspector's comment or just stick to our result?

Javy -

Javy - 

     I am not that familar with retort processes, but as with all validation activities, you should be using a worst-case scenario. It would seem to me that heat trasnfer could be more variable in the larger package.

Your Process Authority has the last word. If done in-house, the Authority issuing the process should be able to be able to validate his work. I see two issues:

1. The amount of product in the retort at one time would affect the initial heat transfer.

2. The number of packages, ie, square inches of packages, also would have an affect on the heat transfer.

Lastly, within two hours and with large dummy pouches, you could generate corroborating date for each size of pouch, the data is already available for the small pouches.

jiminusa

dear javy,i think what the inspector said is right, because according to my experience, the heat penetration between the smallest pouch and biggest pouch is totally different, perhaps what you need to do is to perform heat penetration for the biggest pouch.