Pasteurization is the process of heating food for the purpose of killing harmful organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. The process was named after its inventor, French scientist Louis Pasteur. The first pasteurization test was completed by Pasteur and Claude Bernard on April 20, 1862. A pathogen literally birth of pain from the Greek παθογένεια) is a biological agent that can cause disease to its host. ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... A common alternate meaning of virus is computer virus. ... Protozoa (in Greek protos = first and zoon = animal) are single-celled creatures with nuclei that show some characteristics usually associated with animals, most notably mobility and heterotrophy. ... Moldy cream cheese Molds (British English: moulds) are various fungi that cover surfaces as fluffy mycelium and usually produce masses of asexual, sometimes sexual spores. ... Yeasts constitute a group of single-celled (unicellular) fungi, a few species of which are commonly used to leaven bread and ferment alcoholic beverages. ... Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French microbiologist and chemist. ... Claude Bernard Claude Bernard (July 12, 1813 - February 10, 1878) was a French physiologist. ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Unlike sterilization, pasteurization is not intended to kill all microorganisms in the food. Compare with appertization invented by Nicolas Francois Appert. Instead, pasteurization aims to achieve a "log reduction" in the number of viable organisms, reducing their number so they are unlikely to cause disease (assuming the pasteurized product is refrigerated and consumed before its expiration date). Commercial scale sterilization of food is not common, because it adversely affects the taste and quality of the product. Sterilization (or Sterilisation) is the elimination of all transmissible agents (such as bacteria, prions and viruses) from a surface or piece of equipment. ... A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is so small that it is microscopic (invisible to the naked eye). ... Nicolas François Appert (1750 - 1840-41?): French inventor of airtight food preservation. ... Logarithms to various bases: red is to base e, green is to base 10, and purple is to base 1. ...

Milk pasteurization

Pasteurization is typically associated with milk, first suggested by Franz von Soxhlet in 1886. There are two widely used methods to pasteurize milk: high temperature/short time (HTST), and ultra-high temperature (UHT). HTST is by far the most common method. Milk simply labelled "pasteurized" is usually treated with the HTST method, whereas milk labelled "ultra-pasteurized" must be treated with the UHT method. HTST involves holding the milk at a temperature of 161.5 degrees Fahrenheit (or 72 degrees Celsius) for at least 15 seconds. UHT involves holding the milk at a temperature of 280 °F or 138 °C for at least two seconds. A glass of cows milk Milk most often means the nutrient fluid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals. ... Franz Ritter von Soxhlet (1848-1926): German agricultural chemist who invented the Soxhlet_extractor in 1879 and proposed that Pasteurization be applied to milk in 1886. ... Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), who proposed it in 1724. ... The degree Celsius (°C or ℃ (Unicode 0x2103)) is a unit of temperature named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742. ...

Pasteurization methods are usually standardized and controlled by national food safety agencies (such as the USDA in the United States and the Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom). These agencies require milk to be HTST pasteurized in order to qualify for the "pasteurized" label. There are different standards for different dairy products, depending on the fat content and the intended usage. For example, the pasteurization standards for cream differ from the standards for fluid milk, and the standards for pasteurizing cheese are designed to preserve the phosphatase enzyme, which aids in curing the cheese. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, also called the Agriculture Department, or USDA, is a Cabinet department of the United States Federal Government. ... The Food Standards Agency is an agency of the Government of the United Kingdom. ... Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of raw milk before homogenization. ... Cheese is a solid food made from the curdled milk of various animals—most commonly cows but sometimes goats, sheep, reindeer, and water buffalo. ... A phosphatase is an enzyme that hydrolyses phosphoric acid monoesters into a phosphate ion and a molecule with a free hydroxy group. ... Ribbon diagram of the catalytically perfect enzyme TIM. Factor D enzyme crystal prevents the immune system from inappropriately running out of control. ...

The HTST pasteurization standard was designed to achieve a 5-log reduction (0.00001 times the original) in the number of viable microorganisms in milk. This is considered adequate for destroying almost all yeasts, mold, and common spoilage bacteria and also to ensure adequate destruction of common pathogenic heat-resistant organisms (including particularly Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis and Coxiella burnetii, which causes Q fever). HTST pasteurization processes must be designed so that the milk is heated evenly, and no part of the milk is subject to a shorter time or a lower temperature. Bold text Binomial name Mycobacterium tuberculosis Zopf, 1883 Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterium that causes most cases of tuberculosis. ... Tuberculous lungs show up on an X-ray image Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Coxiella burnetii is a species of pathogenic bacterium, responsible for Q fever. ...

HTST pasteurized milk typically has a refrigerated shelf life of two to three weeks, whereas ultra pasteurized milk can last much longer when refrigerated, sometimes two to three months. When UHT pasteurization is combined with sterile handling and container technology, it can even be stored unrefrigerated for long periods of time. Refrigeration (from the Latin frigus, frost) is generally the cooling of a body by the transfer of a portion of its heat away from it. ... Shelf-life is the length of time that corresponds to a tolerable loss in quality of a processed food. ...

Alternative pasteurization standards and raw milk

In addition to the standard HTST and UHT pasteurization standards, there are other lesser-known pasteurization techniques. The first technique, called "batch pasteurization", involves heating large batches of milk to a lower temperature, typically 155 °F (68 °C). The other technique is called higher-heat/shorter time (HHST), and it lies somewhere between HTST and UHT in terms of time and temperature.

The batch pasteurization step, which is cheap at a large scale, is often performed prior to standard pasteurization. Batch pasteurized milk is often called "raw milk" or, confusingly, "unpasteurized milk". It cannot be called "pasteurized", even though a significant number of pathogens are destroyed during the process. Raw milk is milk that has not been processed via pasteurization (heating) or homogenization before consumption by humans. ...

In recent years, there has been some consumer interest in raw milk products, due to perceived health benefits. Advocates of raw milk maintain, correctly, that vitamins and nutrients survive much better in milk that has not been pasteurized. They also maintain that organic raw milk (most retail raw milk is also organic) is less likely to contain harmful pathogens due to better husbandry in organic dairy herds. This may be true, but it has not been proven. Organic food is, in general, food that is produced without the use of artificial pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). ... In a draw in a mountainous region, a shepherd guides a flock of about 20 sheep amidst scrub and olive trees. ...

However, doctors (and even most raw milk advocates) acknowledge that certain people (e.g. pregnant or breast-feeding mothers, those undergoing immunosuppression treatment for cancer, organ transplant or autoimmune diseases, and those who are immunocompromised due to diseases like AIDS) should not risk consumption of raw milk. Immunosuppression is the medical suppression of the immune system. ... When normal cells are damaged or old they undergo apoptosis; cancer cells, however, avoid apoptosis. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. ... The Red Ribbon is used internationally to symbolize the fight against AIDS AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and is defined as a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the depletion of the immune system caused by infection with HIV. Although treatments...

In fact, some doctors suggest that babies and breast-feeding mothers avoid all but UHT pasteurized dairy products.

In Africa, it is common to boil milk whenever it is harvested. This intense heating greatly changes the flavor of milk, which the people in Africa are accustomed to.

Are current standards adequate?

Milk pasteurization standards have been subject to increasing scrutiny in recent years, due to the discovery of pathogens that are both widespread and heat resistant (able to survive pasteurization in significant numbers). Researchers have developed more sensitive diagnostics, such as real-time PCR and improved culture methods, that have enabled them to identify pathogens in pasteurized milk. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Note: The following paragraphs in this section discuss controversial, ongoing research.

One bacterium in particular, the organism Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), which causes Johne's disease in cattle and is suspected of causing at least some Crohn's disease in humans, has been found to survive pasteurization in retail milk in the U.S., the U.K., Greece, and the Czech Republic. The food safety authorities in the U.K. have decide to re-evaluate pasteurization standards in light of the MAP results and other evidence of harmful, pasteurization-resistant pathogens. Trinomial name Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is a pathogenic bacteria in the genus Mycobacteria. ... Johnes disease (pronounced yo-knees) is a contagious, chronic and usually fatal infection that affects primarily the small intestine of ruminants. ... Diagram of the Human Intestine Crohns disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract and it can involve any part of it - from the mouth to the anus. ...

The USDA (which is responsible for setting pasteurization standards in the U.S.) has not re-evaluated their position on pasteurization adequacy. They do not dispute the studies, which are at this point accepted by the scientific community, but maintain that the presence of MAP in retail pasteurized milk must be due to post-pasteurization contamination. However, some researchers within the FDA, which is responsible for food safety in the U.S., have begun pushing for a re-evaluation of these results. There is a small but growing body of criticism directed at these agencies by Crohn's disease sufferers, scientists, and doctors. Some have suggested that the U.S. dairy industry has been successful in suppressing the agencies' response to a potential health crisis, for fear of consumer panic which would lead to a decrease in milk consumption. It is worth noting that while MAP has not been definitely proven to be harmful in humans, all other mycobacteria are pathogenic, and it has been definitively shown to cause disease in cattle and other ruminants. The United States Food and Drug Administration is the government agency responsible for regulating food, dietary supplements, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, biologics and blood products in the United States. ... Species see text Mycobacterium is the a genus of actinobacteria, given its own family, the Mycobacteriaceae. ...

A newer method called flash pasteurization involves shorter exposure to higher temperatures, and is claimed to be better for preserving color and taste in some products. Flash pasteurization is a method of heat pasteurization of perishable beverages like milk, fruit and vegetable juices, and beer. ...

The term cold pasteurization is used sometimes for the use of ionizing radiation (see Food irradiation) or other means (e.g. chemical) to kill bacteria in food. Food irradiation is also sometimes called "electronic pasteurization". Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to disinfest, sterilize, or preserve food. ... Ionizing radiation is a type of particle radiation in which an individual particle (for example, a photon, electron, or helium nucleus) carries enough energy to ionize an atom or molecule (that is, to completely remove an electron from its orbit). ... Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to disinfest, sterilize, or preserve food. ...

Pasteurized products

Products that can be pasteurized :

• milk
• wine
• beer
• fruit juice
• cider
• honey
• eggs
• sports drinks
• canned food

See also: dairy products, Unpasteurized milk. A glass of cows milk Milk most often means the nutrient fluid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals. ... A glass of red wine Wine display at the Mt Markey Winery This article is about the beverage. ... A typical mug of lager beer, showing the golden colour of the beer and the foamy head floating on top. ... Juice is the liquid naturally contained in plants. ... Cider (also spelled: cyder) refers to a beverage containing the juice of apples. ... Honey honey comb A capped frame of honeycomb Honey is a sweet and viscous fluid produced by bees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. ... A carton of free-range chicken eggs Bird eggs are a common food source. ... A sports drink is a beverage which is supposed to rehydrate athletes, as well as restoring electrolytes, sugar, and other nutrients. ... Canning is a method of preserving food by first heating it to a temperature that destroys contaminating micro-organisms, and then sealing it in air-tight jars or cans. ... Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. ... Raw milk is milk that has not been processed via pasteurization (heating) or homogenization before consumption by humans. ...

References

• Rosenau, M.J., The Milk Question, Haughton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1913.