What is the purpose of a retort pouch?
A retort pouch or retortable pouch is a type of food packaging made from a laminate of flexible plastic and metal foils. It allows the sterile packaging of a wide variety of food and drink handled by aseptic processing, and is used as an alternative to traditional industrial canning methods.
Why is it called a retort pouch?
The retort pouch is a misnomer, since the name today denotes a flexible pouch for low-acid foods terminally sterilized in a pressure vessel often called a retort.
What is retort process?
Retort is a processing method that uses heat and pressure to sterilize food. It is one of the most commonly used methods of thermal food processing and is popular with food producers across the world. The process to pack food.
What is the advantages of retort pouch pack?
The retort pouch has several advantages. It weighs less than a metal can. It is flexible, meaning that it can handle a lot of abuse when taken away from home or on military maneuvers. Because it is flat, it takes up little space, making it easier to carry in a backpack or pocket.
Is retort the same as pasteurization?
Retorting can be applied for pasteurization (elimination of vegetative pathogenic microorganisms) requiring refrigeration and limited shelf life (such as two months) or sterilization (reduction of heat-resistant spores to acceptable levels, resulting in long shelf-life, such as two years at room temperature).
How long can retort food last?
The packaging process is very similar to canning, except that the package itself is flexible. The lamination structure does not allow permeation of gases from outside into the pouch. Therefore Shelf life of Retort products will be 12 months to 36 months in ambient conditions without refrigeration.
Can you microwave a retort pouch?
The retort pouch product can be consumed as such without heating or it can either be heated quickly by keeping the pouch in boiling water for about 3 minutes or by opening the pouch, removing and heating the food product directly in the bowl in microwave oven for a minute.
Are retort pouches recyclable?
The new mono-material retort packaging is fully recyclable, offering a solution that protects the product, provides exceptional shelf life for a mono-material solution and reduces potential food waste.
What temperature is retort?
Retort means any closed vessel or other equipment used for the thermal processing of foods. Typically the sterilization temperatures vary from 110 to 135°C.
What is retort processing in food technology?
Retort processing can be a batch or continuous process that provides in-container sterilization to low acid (pH greater than 4.6) food products to render them shelf stable, as opposed to refrigerated or frozen low acid products.
Which material is used in retort pouch manufacturing?
A retort pouch is made up of plastic and metal foil laminate pouch, with 3 or 4 wide seals usually created by aseptic processing, allowing for the sterile packaging of a wide variety of drinks, that can range from water to fully cooked, thermo-stabilized meals such as ready-to-eat meal that can be eaten cold, warmed by …
What is the disadvantage of retort pouch pack?
Retort pouch packaging offers two major disadvantages: initial machinery costs and process complexity. It requires highly specialized filling, thermal treatment, and tensile strength testing equipment. These machines tend to be expensive to purchase and costly to maintain.
What is a retort pouch?
Some varieties have a bottom gusset and are known as stand-up pouches . The retort pouch was invented by the United States Army Natick R&D Command, Reynolds Metals Company, and Continental Flexible Packaging, who jointly received the Food Technology Industrial Achievement Award for its invention in 1978.
What is retort packaging?
Self-sufficient- The retort packaging is a unique form of self-supporting pouch used for cooked food dishes such as soup, dal, gravy base vegetables, rice, sauce, and pasta etc
What is the function of the neck of a retort?
The neck acts as a condenser, allowing the vapors to condense and flow along the neck to a collection vessel placed underneath. In the chemical industry, a retort is an airtight vessel in which substances are heated for a chemical reaction producing gaseous products to be collected in a collection vessel or for further processing.
What type of sealer is used for retort pouches?
Hot-bar sealers and impulse sealers are commonly used for retort pouches (Tsutsumi, 1974, 1975). The use of the hot-bar sealing method is more preferable than impulse sealing, since, in the latter case, the resulting seals are narrower.
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