CFD simulation of a retort process for food vegetable products

This work aims at simulating a retort sterilization process of flexible packaging, performed in “autoclave”. The retort sterilization is one of the most adopted processes in order to reduce the microbial load of packaged food. Ansys CFD© software has been used in this study in order to simulate the heat transfer inside the retort room. Flexible packaging filled with a particular vegetable soup have been modelled. 3D geometrical configuration of the equipment has been also modelled in order to evaluate the sterilization level reached by each flexible packaging inside the retort room. In particular, the internal temperature of the most disadvantaged simulated product has been monitored during 5 minutes of the process in order to control the time/temperature trend. Finally the model has been validated by comparing the simulation results with those obtained by experimental tests.