Pasteurization and Your Food

One of my perennial rants has to do with over-pasteurization in our nation's food supply.  Yes, we want our food supply to be safe; yes, most of us want to have our food exactly when we want it without delay.  I am very much pro-pasteurization, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Currently there are five kinds of pasteurization on the market: gently pasteurized, pasteurized, flash pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, and cold pasteurized.  Although each method will kill off bacteria and archaea typically found in industrial food, each of them work differently and do different things to your food and drink - usually drink.

Gently pasteurized is not commonly used nowadays.  A gently pasteurized product is simmered at about 145ºF for about 30 minutes.  Manufacturers do not like this method due to three drawbacks: it takes more energy to use this method, it takes longer to do, and it results in a shorter shelf-life even with proper refrigeration.  However, gently pasteurized apple cider is some of the best-tasting heat pasteurized cider you will ever taste.  It is very close to unpasteurized fresh cider in flavor, and it is one of my go-to levels.

Pasteurized is much more common, generally used with milk and some juices.  Your foodstuff is heated to 161ºF for at least 16 seconds before being cooled.  This is a common method used due to lower energy costs, shorter time requirements, and longer shelf-life.  While we have gotten used to the flavor of pasteurized milk in the US, fruit juices suffer more from this method.  Your standard half-gallon box of not-from-concentrate orange juice is pasteurized this way.

Flash Pasteurized has come into vogue over the past couple of decades.  Heat your food to over 180ºF -- 191ºF is common -- for somewhere around 5 seconds for the lower temperature or 1 second for the higher.  All the things that manufacturers like about regular pasteurization they like even more about flash pasteurization.  The only thing that suffers is the taste.  I have had Odwalla flash-pasteurized orange juice once.  It is far too expensive for that cooked a flavor, in my opinion.

Ultra Pasteurized is also more common nowadays.  It has a range of temperatures.  The highest temperatures make liquid milk shelf-stable for months without needing a fridge.  Even higher temperatures, even shorter time, and even lower taste.  I highly suggest avoiding drinks that are ultra-pasteurized, unless you don't have much choice in the matter or you have never had the good stuff.  It is fine for stocking your bolt-hole to survive a zombie apocalypse, but you won't impress a date or a spouse with the taste.

Cold Pasteurized is a misleading term in that it does not use cold to pasteurize your food.  No, this process uses radiation.  While it has similar refrigeration issues to gently pasteurized products, I am actually fond of this method because the flavor is the closest I have found to unpasteurized.  Hey, if you don't like irradiated food, don't use a microwave.  Or anything grown under the sun, which is a giant radiator.

Now, some people I have talked with have said, "But the food is only at those high temperatures for such a short time!  It can't make that much of a difference."  If you are of that sentiment and you are a beef eater, I have a question for you: which ribeye or tenderloin steak would you prefer, the one which took 30 minutes to reach 145ºF inside, or the one which hit 200ºF inside in a second?  It does not matter how long the steak is at that temperature; it only matters that it was that temperature.  The same principle applies to milk, cider, orange juice and more.

Don't give up on pasteurization.  It helps keep our food supply safer in the long run.  However, if you have never had gently- or cold-pasteurized drinks, I urge you to give them a try should you find them.