The development of a pasteurization process for ready to serve refrigerated rock crab (Cancer irroratus) meat

Abstract

A pasteurization process for rock crab (Cancer irroratus) meat was developed for an 8 oz plastic container with an aluminum pull top lid. A refrigerated shelf life greater than 6 months was required maintaining good nutritional and microbial quality. -- The optimal process for the ES308 plastic container, supplied by Kings Plastic, with a double seemed pull top aluminum lid, was found to be 130 minutes at 83°C. This process was developed for a fill weight of 180g of crab meat and 47 g of 3% brine. The slowest heating spot within the container was found to occur at a point 3.0 cm below the aluminum pull top lid. Thermal penetration studies revealed the following heating and cooling parameters for this container and meat: jh = 1.69 (₌0.04), fh = 34.74 (₌1.04), jc = 1.56 (₌0.03), fc = 50.53 (₌1.73) -- The 83.0 °C upper temperature processing limit, for this plastic container, reduced the possible processing times. Reduced processing temperatures, from 83.0 °C, caused disproportionally great increases in processing times which further resulted in increases of energy expenditure per container produced. The process 130 minutes at 83.0 °C was found to be optimal from an energy expenditure point of view for this reason. -- Nutritional quality did not show significant changes apart from some reductions in fatty acid content. The microbial quality from this process was shown to be more than adequate as the shelf life obtained was in excess of 12 months when held consistently at 2.2°C. The shelf life was dramatically lowered with increases in storage temperature (above 4.0°C) and with abusive handling or inadequate sealing.