At Frontline Food Consultants and Engineers, we offer professional services in retort processed food preparation across the development process to production which assures your products are safe and of high quality. Retort processing is a special technique applied to food processing where the Retort Food Products undergo sterilization and are retained at room temperature for a long time as the course involves the use of high temperatures as well as high pressures. Using our Retort Product Development Services you can offer a diverse range of ready-to-eat meals and complementary products such as sauces, soups, etc., in which the heat-processing fresh-like qualities of taste, texture, and nutrition are retained.
We help in Equipment selection and procurement to guarantee you the right retort systems for your production line. Moreover, we have Process Optimization Services that help to optimize the usage of heat treatment in cooking and cooling processes, as well as to maintain the quality of the products and their safety. With our Regulatory Compliance and Packaging Solutions, your retort-processed products come out safe for consumption, properly closed, and last longer for distribution.
What is Retort Food Processing?
Retort food processing is a type of sterilization in food products where food products are packaged under a vacuum /pressure and cooked in a retort which is a pressure cooker at high temperatures of between 115 degrees Celsius and 121 degrees Celsius during a fixed time. This process eliminated all the wrong; bacteria and pathogens that could lead to spoilage of the food and made it possible to store it for a longer period without refrigeration. An example of ready-to-eat products that use retort processing include canned soups, sauces, processed fruits and vegetables, and other ready-to-eat foods. The process assists food manufacturers in preparing quality, easy-to-prepare foods, which retain the nutritional value and quality of the food when consumed later.
To produce retort foods, the ingredients or food items that are to be processed such as vegetables, meat, or sauces have to be prepared and cooked. After that, packaging informs heat-resistant, airtight containers, they can be in the form of cans, pouches, or jars. The packaging needs to be heat resistant and pressure resistant in conditions due to the process of retorting the packaging. Cut wraps are then placed into hermetically sealed packages which in turn are placed into a retort chamber for a process of steaming. In the process, the temperature, and time taken is regulated to the closest to ensure all forms of life are eliminated from the food without compromising the taste and texture of the food. In this process, steam or hot water is made to pass around the packages as a way of heating most of the packages.
The Retort Process
- Filling and Sealing:
- Objective: To result in effective sterilization, one has to make sure that the surrounding is well sealed.
- Details: Confectionery products like pleasantly tasting milk, rasgulla, and khichdi are packed in a pouch and sealed by heating or using mechanical techniques or put in a metal can and sealed. This also ensures that there is no way that any contamination products can find their way into the container in case it is being sterilized.
- Retort Sterilization:
- Objective: Obtain commercial sterility and safety of food.
- Details: Can equipment undergoes heat sterilization, in a retort machine and is exposed to a pressure of 2.5 atm and a high temperature of 121-135 degree Celsius. This process also tends to kill all sort of bacteria, yeasts, mold, and their spores. For example:
- Khichdi: Sometimes cooked at high temperatures to adequately cook off the germs and kill them and consequently achieve a long useful life.
- Flavored Milk: It is also sterilized at high-temperature sensitivity for its flavor retention, nutritional value and safety.
- Rasgulla: Treated in such a manner to preserve its physical characteristics and natural sugars and to be commercially sterile.
- Counter Pressure Retort:
- Objective: Reduce the risk of distortion of flexible packaging materials.
- Details: Auto-claves on the other hand exert counter pressures to the loads placed in the containers so that the internal and external pressures equalize and do not bend the containing structure as they are processed. This is especially important for refrigerated products with flexible packaging, including flavored milk and soups.
- Cooling:
- Objective: They would require that the cooking process be halted and, as a result, product quality be ensured.
- Details: Cooling is performed using water sprays or more often by immersing the containers in cooling tanks after sterilization is done. This step is crucial in order to halt further exposure to heat and permit the food to retain its appropriate characteristics as well as its nutrient content. For instance:
- Soups and Stews: This course of cooling is fast to ensure the retention of the absorbed tastes and the formation of a correct textural structure.
- Rasgulla: A process of cooling is required to retain the firm texture and structure of the product and make it spongy.
The following below are the benefits of using the retort processing;
- Extended Shelf Life: Extends the shelf life of food products enhancing their storage capacity. For instance, RTE meals in particular and flavored milk in particular do not require deep refrigeration to be suitable for human consumption for quite some time.
- Nutritional Retention: Loss of mainly 100water and vitamins, fur coat texture, color, odor and taste, bulk, and crispness retained most of its nutrient and organoleptic properties. Items like khichdi & rasgulla are not dehydrated or processed, and maintain their basic flavors and overall health benefits.
- Convenience: Sells fresh prepared meals and ingredients for people who do not have much time on their hands to cook in India.
- Safety: High-pressure and high-temperature processing make sure that food is not contaminated by bad bacteria, which allows consuming such products as rasgulla or flavored milk.