Comparative analysis of temperature loggers used in the development of regimes for heat treatment of food production in autoclaves

Heat treatment processes carried out in an autoclave at a temperature from 60 up to 130 °C are usually applied in the canned food production. Actual process lethality value is used as a criterion determining the product readiness and its microbiological safety. It is computed by summing the lethal effect values of heating obtained at different temperatures recorded inside the tin can with product. Loggers (thermographs) are special technical means of temperature measurement and recording in an electronic storage device, used to automate the task of obtaining product temperature kinetics. The article provides a comparative analysis of the widespread Thermochron DS1922T (used in the Thermochron protector capsule) and Ellab TrackSense PRO loggers, which protection class allows working in conditions (water, high temperatures and pressure) specific for typical heat treatment product regime. The logger Ellab TrackSense PRO was accepted as an etalon. Loggers recorded the temperature at the least heated point of the autoclave sterilization chamber during all processes. The graphs of temperature kinetics for pasteurization and sterilization processes were received in series of experiments. Thermochron thermographs absolute and relative errors, declared by the manufacturer, are experimentally verified. In result, the conclusion and recommendations of thermal recorder Thermochron DS1922T utilization are given. (paper)