Changing from Hot Fill to Tunnel Pasteurization

Hello,

I own a company that makes fruit based beverages.  Since inception, we have invested in our own production line and done hot fill pasteurization with no issues.

We are looking at moving to a co-packer that have far greater production capabilities than we do. However, they do not offer hot fill pasteurization, only tunnel pasteurization.

From a food safety standpoint, if the same amount of PUs are applied through tunnel pasteurization as hot fill, does the food safety risk stay the same?  Is tunnel pasteurization as effective as hot fill pasteurization?

I appreciate any and all feedback .

Thanks,

I have worked with both tunnel and HTST pasteurization. 

What is the holding temperature and time for the tunnel pasteurization?  Normally for juice based products it was 10 minutes at 160 to 165 F on the tunnel that was at my facility.  We did both beer and CSD's and some juice products.  The more juice, the higher the temperature.  For beer, we looked for pasteurization units, for juice based products, we looked at time and temperature.

Aside from the food safety risks, I would also do some trials to make sure your flavor profile does not change.

Leo

Hello,

 

I own a company that makes fruit based beverages.  Since inception, we have invested in our own production line and done hot fill pasteurization with no issues.

 

We are looking at moving to a co-packer that have far greater production capabilities than we do. However, they do not offer hot fill pasteurization, only tunnel pasteurization.

 

From a food safety standpoint, if the same amount of PUs are applied through tunnel pasteurization as hot fill, does the food safety risk stay the same?  Is tunnel pasteurization as effective as hot fill pasteurization?

 

I appreciate any and all feedback .

 

Thanks,

Hi Logan,

See -

https://www.ifsqn.co...on/#entry189323

Logan,

I I know this post is rather dated, but we own a Hotfill manufacturing facility and strongly believe in the benefits of Hot filling over tunnel for micro control, flavor preservation and extended shelf life. If you are still in need of services I would love to connect.