The objective of thermal processing is to deliver temperature into a package of product (referred to as “Canned Foods”) in a quantity sufficient to cause the death or destruction of all microorganisms of public significance as well as those of economic spoilage concern. Process Authorities undertake the task of determining what a “safe process” is and ensure that the retort can actually deliver that process time/temperature in a safe and effective manner.
"Calculating a Process" refers to the task of establishing safe Thermal Processes for specific canned food products. This is accomplished by conducting heat penetration testing, evaluating the collected data, and using calculation methods to determine time, temperature, and lethality values. The objective of a thermal process must be designed to destroy all pathogenic microbial spores capable of outgrowth in the food under non-refrigerated storage and deviation conditions, which is required by federal law.
CALSoft enables you to Calculate a Process using heat penetration data and the Ball Formula Method. General Method evaluation reports are also available in CALSoft. The procedures to accomplish this using the Ball Formula are designed into CALSoft as follows:
- Establish a ProCal record
- Load Heat Penetration (HP) Files to be evaluated
- For each HP file, review time/temperature data, product data factors, and access a zoom graph
- Set plotting defaults and plot data for each HP data file
- Compare the results of evaluated heat penetration data and choose the heating factors to use in the process calculation
- Assign critical factors to the final process
- Calculate & print a thermal process schedule
To perform a process calculation, click on the "Process Calculation" button on the CALSoft homepage. The middle panel will display the "recently used" Process Calculation Files (ProCAL Records) that were opened in CALSoft.
This page will allow the user to Create a New Process, Open an Existing Process Calculation, or run a Quick Ball Formula Calculation.
Click the "New" button to begin a new Process Calculation. CALSoft will then create a new ProCAL record in the database. Once the ProCAL record is set up, you can begin the process of loading HP files, evaluating the data, and calculating a thermal process using the Ball Formula.