Development and evaluation of a novel sterilizer with rotary vibrators

A novel steam-air sterilizer with rotary vibrators was developed with the aim of promoting heat transfer and the effective sterilization of foods. To evaluate the effects of the sterilizer, experiments to examine heat transfer and sterilization tests were carried out. In the experiments to examine heat transfer, heat penetration factors of sterilizer with vibration, j and fh values, were 1.70 and 1.50, respectively, while those of sterilizer without vibration were 1.83 and 2.32, respectively. In the sterilization with vibration, no surviving cells were detected after 3 min, whereas 7 min were required for sterilization without vibration. The rate of the amino carbonyl reaction was repressed by heat treatment with vibration.