Pasteurization Pasteurization is named for a process developed by Louis Pasteur as he looked for ways to prevent wine spoilage. It is important to note that Pasteurization is not synonymous with sterilization. This process employs heat to destroy pathogens and reduce the number of spoilage microbes in foods. Before this process was developed, milk was a common source of diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever and brucellosis. Today, pasteurization is primarily used to prolong the shelf-life of various foods.
Pasteurization employs the concept of equivalent treatments .
As temperature increases less time is needed to kill a certain number of microbes that would take more time to kill at a lower temperature. The HTST methods involve continuos passage of foods past a heat exchanger. Common uses of dry heat sterilization are flaming of inoculating loops and the sterilization of glassware in hot air drying ovens. Filtration Filter sterilization is commonly employed for substances that can not tolerate heat. Membrane filters with pore sizes between 0.2-0.45 um are commonly used to remove particles from solutions that can't be autoclaved.