Prediction of Nutrient Retention in Thermally Processed Heat Conduction Food Packaged in Retortable Pouches

A model was developed to predict the retention of nutrients with first order kinetics of thermal degradation in foods packaged in reportable pouches and sterilized by thermal conduction. The validity of the model was verified experimentally on a simulated food. The model was effective in predicting the temperature at the center of the container at the end of the heating period and, to a lesser extent, at the end of the cooling period. The prediction of the fraction of nutrient retained at the end of processing compared favorably to the fraction obtained experimentally, and they were within the 90% confidence intervals of the experimental fractions.