Let me make, some clarity between these two thermal treatments normally applied to preserve foods from the risks related to poor food storage.
Pasteurization: the thermal process applied to some low acid foods (such as milk and derivatives with pH > 4.60), in order to minimize health risks due to pathogenic microorganisms, sensitive to heat, such as bacteria in vegetative form, fungi and yeasts, with minimal alteration of the chemical, physical and organoleptic characteristics of the food. These products are included into the category of semi-preserved and must be kept at refrigerated temperatures (4-6 ° C) to guarantee healthy conditions.
Even those high acidity foods (pH < 4.60) pasteurized in order to reduce the presence of pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms, can be stored at room temperature.
Recently it’s frequent use of cold pasteurization systems (HPP) which, however, if applied to a low-acid food (pH > 4.60) produce a semi-preserved food, which therefore needs to be refrigerated to guarantee healthy conditions.
Sterilization: The thermal process applied to a product to ensure the destruction of all pathogenic micro-organisms including thermophiles and sporigenes, present within the food, and capable of reproducing under normal conditions of non-refrigerated storage, including mainly CL. Botulinum.
They are generally low-acid foods (pH > 4.60) which are normally stored in hermetically sealed containers at room temperature.
