Heat Penetration for Sliced Mushrooms in Brine Processed in Still and Agitating Retorts with Comparisons to Spore Count Reduction

Retail and institutional cans of sliced mushrooms in brine were heated in still and agitating retorts. The F o values and heat penetration factors were determined from time‐temperature data for various brine headspaces, reel speeds, and fill weights. Mushroom fill weight was the more critical parameter for simulated Sterilmatic and still processes. In the Sterilmatic, increasing the fill weight by 17% reduced the F o from 9.5 to 5.7 min. Compacting mushrooms during filling reduced the F o from 21.8 to 4.3 min in the still retort. A microbial method of process determination was conducted for selected agitated processes to compare with heat penetration. The integrated sterilization value, based on spore count reduction, exceeded F o by as much as 7.2 min in the 603 × 700 can, indicating the two sterilization values are not directly comparable.