Our Hot Fill Process
Do you love the satisfying *pop* every time you open a jar of one of our soups? That pop is more than a delightful sound. It is a key indicator that the soup you are about to eat has been properly sealed and pasteurized.
Pasteurization
So what is pasteurization? In the food industry, pasteurization is used to describe how prepared food is treated to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. Traditional pasteurization utilizes heat in the treatment of food to destroy microorganisms. This process has been used for thousands of years to make food safe to eat and to prevent spoilage. It is named after French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who studied thermal processing in the 1800s to bring us this timeless form of food and beverage preservation. Mechanisms to conduct pasteurization have been invented past Pasteur’s time and are still used today. We have harnessed the process of pasteurization to ensure our soups are fresh with absolutely no added preservatives.
Inside the Kitchen
In our kitchen, Chef Alfie utilizes hot fill pasteurization to kill bacteria and other enzymes that cause spoilage and increase risk of disease. We take great care in ensuring the pasteurization process is done safely and within FDA guidelines while filling our soups. To begin the process, the soup is prepared as normal. It is then heated to 185 degrees Fahrenheit and held at temperature for fifteen minutes. Next the soup is poured into a sanitized glass jar with half an inch of space remaining in the jar. Before closing the jars, we place all the caps in a large bucket of warm water to loosen the inside coating for an airtight seal. Once we turn the jars back upright the cap will eventually snap down. The cap-snap process is an old fashioned form of pasteurization, designed to eliminate most of the air and kill any bacteria inside the jar. That is why when you open a jar of our soup you hear the little "pop" of freshness. After sorting and labeling, the jars of soup are packaged and shipped, ready to arrive at your doorstep or to a local Gainesville grocery store!
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this post! Our team takes great care in providing relevant and trustworthy information for you to make informed purchases, soup-related or not. If you enjoy our posts and would like to try the soups we constantly rave about, add some to the cart and use the code “LOYAL” for a free soup. See you over at the Soup Shop!
*minimum purchase of 3 soups required
Sources
http://www.fao.org/docrep/V5030E/V5030E0e.htm
https://www.idfa.org/pasteurization