OPTIMIZATION OF STERILIZATION CONDITIONS FOR PRODUCTION OF CANNED CASHEW NUT MILK

Abstract

Sterilization conditions (temperature and time) of canned cashew milk were investigated by using factorial design. The actual efficient sterilization time (F_tt) was calculated with Clostridium botulinum as the target microorganism. The regression analysis showed that F_tt fitted the sterilization condition in the linear regression model with R² = 0.951. The target value of F_tt was calculated according to the recommendations of Nguyen Trong Can et al. The optimal conditions were predicted by using JMP 10 software. Accordingly, the optimal temperature and time were 115 °C and 3.2 minutes, respectively. The verified value of F_tt was 3.34 minutes; Clostridium botulimun test results showed that the optimum sterilization condition ensured the required sterility. In addition, other microbial tests have resulted in less than 1 CFU/mL, thus, products meet hygiene requirements. In addition, the product has a high level of general preference with an average score of 7.55 ± 0.83; higher than the minimum acceptable score of 6 points.

Keywords: Cashew milk, factorial design, sterilization, efficient sterilization time, target microorganism.