Pasteurised under vacuum

Buhler Barth AG introduced a new CCP nut and almond sterilisation system at this year’s Interpack.

This latest innovation was developed in response to the continuing salmonella problem, which has particularly hit the almond industry in the US.
Existing processes approved by the Almond Board of California (ABC) often degrade or even destroy the natural appearance of the almonds. The goal for Buhler Barth was to find a gentle process which would allow the salmonella count to be slashed by a value better than logarithm 4′ without affecting the natural appearance of the almonds.
In developing the new machine, Buhler Barth AG was supported by Dr Rainer Perren from RPN Foodtechnology AG in Grosswangen, Switzerland, and scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. The system exposes a batch of almonds or nuts in the product chamber to a vacuum, then saturated steam is injected. Following steam treatment, the vacuum is maintained in order to reduce the moisture content of the product. Then the product chamber is vented and the batch is discharged.
The special innovation is that pasteurisation takes place in a vacuum, so absorbs very little moisture. In conventional processes, up to 10% moisture is added to the product. In the CCP process, this value is less than one per cent. If almonds absorb too much moisture, this may in the worst case cause the shells to be detached. In the CCP process, all the shells retain their natural colour. This effect also applies to all other nuts or oil-containing seeds such as sunflower seeds, melon seeds, or similar produce.
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