Development of Small Scale Pasteurizer for Production of Acidified Bamboo Shoot in Rectangular Package

Abstract

This work aimed at developing a small scale pasteurizer, suitable for community industry, foracidified bamboo shoot, which is packed in a rectangular container with the dimensions of 24x24x34 cm3,at a capacity of 500 units per day as well as at establishing the thermal process for the product. In thiswork, food safety, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and environmental friendliness of the processwere considered. The work was divided into two parts. The first part concerned with the determination ofheat flux and heat input from the burner; the data obtained were then used to design and construct thepasteurizer. In the second part, a temperature distribution test was carried out to investigate the slowestheating zone in the pasteurizing equipment. The cold point of the product was determined. Heatpenetration study was also conducted and the thermal process was established. From the preliminarytest of a single rectangular package, it was found that the heat flux from a single burner was around 15.89kW/m2 and the corresponding heat input was around 16.43 kW. The pasteurizer was then constructedusing stainless steel 304 having dimensions of 120x380x50 cm3 and using 6 units of burner. Thepasteurizer was designed to hold 56 bulk packages; boiling water was used as the heating medium andliquefied petroleum gas (L.P.G) was used as the energy source. The temperature distribution test showeda uniform heat distribution within the pasteurizer and the cold point of the product was located at theheight equivalent to 15 percent of the total container height, measured from the bottom of the containeralong the central line of the vertical axis. Finally, the thermal process of acidified bamboo shoot inrectangular package of 14 kg fill weight and 20 kg net weight was established as an initial producttemperature was minimized at room temperature and the process time at 97 oC was 20 minutes to obtainthe product temperature at cold point of 85 oC for at least 5 min.

Keywords : Acidified Bamboo Shoot / Heat Distribution / Heat Penetration / Pasteurizer /Thermal Process1