Acid and acidified foods will not allow the growth of Clostridium botulinum. However, a pasteurizing heat treatment is necessary to destroy other bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and mold. Temperatures and process times which destroy microorganisms without destruction of nutrients may fail to deactivate enzymes. If the process selected does not inactivate the enzymes, product changes may proceed during storage, at an accelerated rate, and cause a loss of product quality. The microbiological quality of raw product is the simple greatest determinant in the level of quality in the food.
Thermal processing is no substitute for good raw product quality.