CHANGES IN THERMAL-PROCESS TIMES (B(B)) FOR BAKED BEANS BASED ON WATER HARDNESS AND FILL TEMPERATURE

To compare the consequences of water hardness on canning of dry beans, baked beans were prepared using water that contained 70 or 260 ppm ca lcium for soaking/blanching of navy beans and in the preparation of a tomato sauce for brine. Another factor examined for this project invol ved increasing the initial temperature of the canned beans prior to th ermal processing by eliminating the cooling step after blanching. In g eneral, if the initial temperature prior to thermal processing can be increased, the process time (B(b)) is generally decreased. However, wh en the initial temperature of these baked beans was increased by this method, the process time increased in comparison to the time for beans that were cooled after blanching. In examining the water hardness, th e beans, which had been cooled after blanching, processed with an incr eased CaCO3 demonstrated a decreased process time (F(o) = 5.3) in comp arison to those beans processed with a lower CaCO3. In one instance, t he process time was decreased by 12% due to the presence of calcium po ssibly due to decreased gelatinization, physical restriction of swelli ng, reduced solubility of pectin, starch, and protein in the brine sol ution; consequently, these actions would increase the heat transfer in the food during thermal processing. Based on these investigations, wa ter hardness should be considered an important parameter when performi ng heat-processing determinations and in the transference of heating d ata from one site to another.