Author: Purwiyatno Hariyadi
ABSTRACT
The food-canning industry in Indonesia is one of the most important agro-based industries. Especially popular for processing and preserving fish (seafood), meat and horticultural products, the food-canning industry has contributed significantly to Indonesia’s national economy. To assess the safety aspects of commercial sterilisation processing practices, we have evaluated the sterilising value (F0-value) for selected canned foods produced by the Indonesian food industry. The method for sterilisation evaluation was adopted from the guidelines of the Institute for Thermal Processing Specialists. Our results indicated that not all scheduled processes have been evaluated properly. Based on the calculated F0-value, most low-acid canned foods produced by the food-canning industry in Indonesia are adequately heat processed or even tend to be over processed. Sterilisation values, expressed as F0-values were found in the range 1.9 to 148.4. It is suggested that, especially with respect to thermal processing, there is a great need for food safety assurance and quality optimisation.