Characteristics and influencing factors of ultra-autoclave technology

  Features of UHCL technology:

  1. The difference between ultra-autoclave and heat sterilization

  Ultra-high pressure treatment is a cold sterilization process, which can maintain the physical characteristics of food such as color, aroma, and taste, and has a long shelf life. Ultra-high pressure treatment can improve the structure of biopolymers and regulate food texture. Ultra-high pressure treatment is the equivalent compression process of liquid medium in a short time, so that food sterilization achieves uniformity, instantaneous, high efficiency, and lower energy consumption than heating method, while heat sterilization does not have these advantages of ultra-autoclaving.

  2. Comparison of ultra-high pressure technology with traditional chemically treated food

  Ultra-autoclave technology does not need to add chemicals to food, overcomes the adverse effects of chemical reagents and microbial intracellular substances on the human body, and also avoids the negative effects of chemical reagents residues in food on the human body, thus ensuring the safety of consumption.

  The ultra-autoclave conditions are easy to control, and the external environment has little impact on it, while chemical reagent sterilization is easily affected by moisture, temperature, pH, organic environment, etc., and the effect changes greatly.

  Ultra-high pressure sterilization can better maintain the natural flavor of food, and even improve the conformation of food polymers, act on meat and aquatic products, and improve the tenderness and flavor of meat products. Acting on raw milk, it is conducive to the maturation of cheese and the final flavor of cheese, and can also increase the yield of cheese, which chemical reagents do not have.

  Frequent use of chemical reagents will make the bacterial body resistant and the sterilization effect will be weakened, while ultra-autoclave is a one-time sterilization, which has obvious effect on the bacteria.

  The main factors affecting UHC

  In the implementation process of ultra-autoclaving, there are many amounts that need to be carefully controlled by relevant staff to avoid the failure of the sterilization process due to the impact of these factors. There are many quantities that affect UHC, and each amount should be just right.

   1. The impact of stress

  Under normal circumstances, the greater the pressure and the longer the pressure time, the better the sterilization effect, but in practice, in order to ensure the edible value and nutritional value of food, the pressure and pressure time of this technology must have a certain limit.

  Take raw meat as an example, if the pressure on raw meat is too long or too much during the sterilization process, then the taste of the meat will be affected. However, the use of pressure should not be overly restricted, and some tests have shown that only E. coli on food will be killed only under ultra-high pressure, so in the process of ultra-high pressure sterilization, ** should still apply as much pressure as possible.

  2. The influence of temperature

 In addition to pressure has a great impact on sterilization, temperature is also a great influencing factor, when under pressure, temperature has a great impact on the sterilization effect, experiments show that the sterilization effect of pressure and temperature combined is much better than the effect of pressure sterilization alone, 280 MPa pressure and temperature of 20 °C with 150 MPa and 50 The sterilization effect of °C temperature is the same, and the pressure and temperature complement each other, which can reach the balance point of the two, so that the sterilization effect is better and more **.

  Market Application of Ultraclave Equipment

   The main part of food ultra-autoclave preservation equipment is ultra-high pressure containers and pressurized devices (high-pressure pumps and boosters, etc.), followed by some auxiliary facilities, etc. Its main part is divided into vertical and horizontal, experimental equipment is more vertical, and most of the production equipment is horizontal.

 The equipment requirements have the following technical characteristics: **, which can generate and withstand the required ultra-high pressure (100 MPa~600). MPa)，It can ensure safety, have a long service life and a large number of cycle loads; Second, the sanitary conditions of the equipment are high, the part in contact with food should use stainless steel, and the pressure transmission medium is pure water; Third, the equipment has short production time, high efficiency and low operating costs.

   Japan is a country with rapid development of ultra-autoclave technology, and MHI has supplied experimental and production equipment to the market, and the equipment model is MFE Series. The United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Sweden have also commercialized ultra-high voltage equipment, but these equipment are relatively expensive, which affects the promotion and use of this technical equipment.

 At present, the main companies that can commercialize ultra-high voltage equipment are Avure Technologies in the United States and Stansted in the United Kingdom Company, NCHyperbaric in Spain, Alstom in France, Elmhurst Research Inc. Company, Kobelco Corporation of Japan, StorkFood & Dairy Sys-tems B.V. of the Netherlands Company, ABB in Sweden company and Uhde in Germany, etc.

  Among them, equipment from American and Spanish companies is used in production, while other companies are mainly experimental. Spain NC is a manufacturer of ultra-high voltage equipment in Europe, producing 600 large cylinders of equipment MPa, 420 L, all container structures are winding type. Avure Technologies' ultra-high pressure equipment is also a winding cylinder, ** in 600 MPa, 525 L and 400 units MPa、687 L。

  2. The status of domestic food ultra-high pressure technology and equipment

 At present, the domestic ultra-autoclave equipment related enterprises mainly include Shanxi San**he Technology Co., Ltd., Tianjin Huatai Senmiao Bioengineering Technology Co., Ltd., Baotou Kefa High Pressure Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Suyuan Zhongtian Technology Co., Ltd. and Wenzhou Beno Machinery Co., Ltd. The technical performance of its related products such as the working pressure is 600 MPa, the filling rate is more than 60%, the cycle time is less than 8 minutes, and the production capacity is about 3 000 kg/h. The 5 Among the enterprises, Tianjin Huatai Senmiao Bioengineering Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on the development of experimental products, and several others have developed production equipment, all of which have achieved commercial production.