Pasteurisation

Pasteurisation is a process of heating a food, typically liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time. This process leads to the partial sterilisation of this food through reducing heat-sensitive vegetative cells to an extent that it is not harmful for human consumption and without major changes in the chemistry of the food. Unlike sterilisation, pasteurisation is not intended to kill all microorganisms in the food. Instead pasteurisation aims to reduce the number of viable pathogens so they are unlikely to cause disease. Pasteurisation is mostly known in connection with milk and is named after French microbiologist Louis Pasteur.