Pasteurization machine

The pasteurization machine can perform continuous heat treatment (HTST) to reduce or suppress food spoilage in the food product. Some types of machines can also perform sterilization (UHT).

Figure 1. Pasteurization machine.

The flow of food product in the machine:

• Cold, raw food product is stored in balance tank at 4°C.
• The pump draws the raw food product into the regenerator. Here, it is warmed to 57-68 °C by the heat given up by hot pasteurized food product flowing in the opposite direction.
• The raw food product passes through the heater section, where hot water on opposite sides of the plates heats the food product to a temperature of at least 72°C.
• The food product flows into the holding tube, where it is held for at least 16 sec.
• The flow diversion device manages the flow of food product, to ensure that only pasteurized food product exits the system. If the temperature of the food product is greater than 72°C, the FDD will direct the food product to the cooling system, if not, the FDD will direct the food product back to the balance tank.
• Properly heated food product flows to the regenerator, where it gives up its heat to the cold food product and in turn gets cooled down to 32-9°C.
• The warm food product passes through the cooling section where it cooled to 4°C or below.
• The now cold pasteurized food product flows through a vacuum breaker at least 12 inches above the highest raw milk in the pasteurized machine.
• Finally, the pasteurized food product arrived at the storage tank, ready for packaging.