Food Technology Glossary

The commercial sterility standard for low-acid canned food: a heat process delivering twelve decimal reductions of Clostridium botulinum spores.

An anaerobic, spore-forming bacterium producing botulinum neurotoxin. Proteolytic types do not grow below pH 4.6, aw 0.94 or 10 °C.

The condition in which no microorganisms capable of growing under normal storage conditions remain, though highly heat-resistant spores may survive.

The time at a given temperature required to destroy 90% of a microbial population — one log reduction.

The total lethality of a heat process expressed as equivalent minutes at a reference temperature. F0 is the reference at 121.1 °C with z = 10 °C.

The controlled use of microorganisms or their enzymes to convert food substrates, producing acids, alcohol, gas and flavour compounds.

Gram-positive, non-sporing bacteria producing lactic acid as the main fermentation product — Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus.

A type of fungus that grows as fuzzy patches on food, often green, white, or black, usually a sign that the food has spoiled.

The natural breakdown of food, usually caused by microbes, enzymes, or oxidation, that makes it unsafe or unpleasant to eat.

A small, controlled batch of live microbes added to a food on purpose to start and guide fermentation in a predictable way.

A single-celled microorganism (a type of fungus) that can turn sugar into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol through fermentation.

The temperature increase required to reduce the D-value by a factor of ten — the slope of the thermal death time curve.