Pasteurization of Milk

Abstract

We determined the time it takes milk, which is heated from 60°F to 150°F, to achieve pasteurization and compared this result with the standard pasteurization process of heating milk at a constant temperature of 150°F for 30 minutes. Instead of directly quantifying the bacterium population, we considered the bacteria to milk concentration ratio. To solve for the unknown time, we equated the final bacterium concentration ratio achieved through both varied temperature and constant temperature. After equating the final pasteurization concentrations we were unable to find an analytical solution, so we used numerical techniques to find the unknown heating time.

Keywords

• Pasteurization, Temperature Changes, Decimal reduction time