The link that kingstrudler1 provided has some great information on the general process of verifying commercial sterility in UHT processing. For an autoclave, it sounds like you're a pretty small-batch operation. Nevertheless, the risk of illness in improperly sterilized product should not be downplayed. I'd really recommend reaching out to a process authority to help validate your cook process. There are a couple points to consider:
- Does your autoclave reach temperatures that can inactivate spores? (there are spore ampoules that can be used to check this)
- Is the time your process spends at sterilization temperatures appropriate for your product? This is dependent on your packaging shape and heat penetration of your product. Cold-point and heat penetration studies should be done to find out the specifics
- Are you familiar with the cold-points within your autoclave chamber?
Given the risks involved, it's important to consult experts who can get hands-on experience with your process. Many of your questions have answers that will be very specific to your unique process. After a lot of pre-assessment is complete, verifying commercial sterility usually comes down to incubation testing. This involves taking a sample of a certain number of packages per sterilization run, incubating them to allow any potential contamination to grow to detectable levels, then streak plating them to observe any growth.
Edited by Brothbro, 16 April 2024 - 03:55 PM.
