Food Sterilization with Temperature Ramping

by Shayna Kriss

Submitted : Spring 2010

The purpose of this project is to use differential equations and upper level calculus to determine a time in minutes that chicken soup should be heated, using a linear temperature ramping sterilization process, to effectively reduce the number of micro-organisms in the product to an acceptable level. Once the time in minutes has been calculated, a temperature in degrees Fahrenheit is to be calculated that would be the ending temperature of the food product. Involved in the separable differential equations are many substitutions and simplifications of known values. Once two equations are produced that can be set equal to each other, it is a simple matter of solving for the variable t (time in minutes).

The final result is that it would take 4.886 minutes to heat the product to 257.97 degrees Fahrenheit. Since it is known that at a constant temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit the time to sterilize the product was 2.4 minutes, this time is almost exactly double it. This leads to the conclusion that although it takes longer, the temperature ramping sterilization process is more cost and energy efficient.

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