Data for this reaction were generated under continuous flow thermal

processing conditions that included the UHT process temperature range. Torres and Oliveira (1999) also used the acid hydrolysis of sucrose as TTI for assessing holding temperatures in pasteurization processes. Values of temperature were estimated from the measured conversion based on kinetic data obtained in batch conditions. These results agreed with thermocouple measurements, with deviations of less than 4 °C for conversions between 0.4 and 0.7. At the same way, Gentry and Roberts (2004) assessed the kinetic parameters for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) formation to validate the total lethality of a continuous flow microwave pasteurization system for

apple cider. The HMF concentrations were determined by gas selleck chemicals chromatography with flame ionization detector before and after the thermal processing to determine the net increase in HMF. These values compared well with those based on the GSI-IX clinical trial time-temperature histories. The aim of this work was to develop and test TTIs for the evaluation of HTST pasteurization processes of liquid foods with low viscosity, such as milk and fruit juices. Instead of developing an extrinsic or intrinsic TTI for a specific food, the idea was to test general water-based TTIs that could be applied to assess different processes, as long as the viscous and thermal characteristics of the food do not differ at great extend from Proteasome inhibitor those of water. Therefore, these TTIs had to be able to detect under-processing and over-processing at HTST pasteurization conditions (temperatures between 70 °C and 85 °C and holding times between 10 s and 60 s). Consequently, enzymes dissolved in phosphate buffer were purposed as TTIs to evaluate continuous thermal processing of liquid foods. The buffer containing the enzyme was processed simulating the liquid food and the residual enzymic activity was assessed after the treatment. Enzymes peroxidase, lactoperoxidase and alkaline phosphatase were chosen for the tests

because they are partially inactivated at pasteurization conditions and they can be rapidly assessed by reflectometric methods. Discontinuous thermal treatments at various time-temperature combinations were performed in order to adjust the kinetic parameters. The measured time-temperature history was used for the parameter adjustment instead of assuming isothermal conditions in order to improve the quality of the results. Discontinuous experiments with slow heating and cooling were used to validate the results. Three enzymes were tested in this work as TTIs, each one consisting of a commercial lyophilized powder (Sigma–Aldrich, St Louis, USA) dissolved in phosphate buffer (pH 6.6 and ionic strength 50 mM), which was prepared from mono- and dibasic sodium phosphates in distilled water.