Temperature or heat distribution

Thermal Validation

Temperature distribution testing is the measurement of temperature uniformity in cooker/retort systems to ensure that:
  • The cooker/retort is operating sufficiently uniformly to ensure a controlled microbial kill and even product quality
  • That the cold spot in the cooker/retort is known
  • The instrumentation on the cooker/retort properly reflects the applied heat process
Such testing must be carried out with sufficient temperature sensors distributed through the load measuring the heating environment temperature. The details of the methods used may vary according to the cooker, national guidelines or legislation.

Heat distribution is a more specialist test, which is becoming more relevant as the heat environments become more complex (such as raining water or steam-air mixtures). In such environments the rate of product heating is not purely dependent upon the temperature because heat transfer is also affected by factors such as the heating medium flow rate. Therefore, in order to measure the uniformity of product heating it is necessary to embed distributed probes in either product or a more uniform simulant.

Share by: