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Fresh pasta maker romances long shelf life

Romance Foods pasteurizes its cooked, packaged pastas using a combination microwave/convection oven to achieve 75-day refrigerated shelf life.

Romance Foods produces filled and unfilled cooked pasta and sauces (above). Packaged pasta goes through a microwave/convection p
Romance Foods produces filled and unfilled cooked pasta and sauces (above). Packaged pasta goes through a microwave/convection p

Romance Foods knows that its microwave/convection pasteurization process to extend product shelf life isn’t new. It is, however, unusual in the U.S. And, with an assist from nitrogen gas flushing during filling, the process yields a 75-day refrigerated shelf life for the Kenosha, WI, company’s cooked pasta products, which do not use preservatives. That extended shelf life is longer than competitive products in the fresh, cooked pasta category, says company president Robert Ramsay.

Romance Foods also uses the process for a cold-filled pesto sauce. However, the pasteurizing equipment is not used for any of the company’s other sauces, which are hot-filled into flexible layflat packs. Sauces have a refrigerated shelf life of 80 to 120 days, attributable to cooking time and temperature.

Romance Foods uses a microwave pasteurizing system that was developed by Italian engineer Guiseppe Ruozi. Ruozi and The Classica Group (Lakewood, NJ) signed a three-year agreement in 1999 to further develop similar systems.

The equipment uses a combination of microwave and convection heating to pasteurize the pasta, sold in both filled and unfilled varieties. To kill bacteria, packs are conveyed through the pasteurizing equipment for 15 to 20 minutes, with product temperatures reaching 165°F. Romance Foods runs two of the in-line pasteurizers at its 25ꯠ sq’ plant in Kenosha. The side-by-side processors measure approximately 50’ long x 5’ wide.

The units at Romance Foods are two of only three such machines in operation in the U.S., Ramsay believes. “There are many of these systems in operation in Europe,” he says. When asked why so few are in operation in the U.S., Ramsay points to economic and marketing factors. Also helping to make such technology more widespread in Europe is that chilled foods with extended shelf lives are far more popular there than in the U.S.

“Microwave pasteurization for long shelf life is a key for our business,” continues Ramsay, who purchased the company in late 1999 from Johnsonville Foods. “All of our pasta goes through the pasteurization tunnel because we can’t achieve a good shelf life without it,” he notes. “We also use it for our pesto sauce, as it’s cold-filled so that the product retains its texture rather than turn mushy.”

Johnsonville began using the system not long after it started the company in 1989. Before using the system, refrigerated shelf life for cooked pastas was 20 days.

Three zones

Quality assurance manager Cheryl Poisl describes the pasteurizing process: “The machines have beginning, middle and end zones, with about 30 individual power settings. We use different powers for different packs, which are time- and temperature-dependent. The larger the pack, the longer it stays in the tunnel.”

Poisl says that packs are conveyed through the zones in 15 to 20 minutes, with as many as 700 packs fitting into a machine at one time. Temperatures in the oven are usually around 194°F. “We heat product inside the packs to about 165°F and maintain that temperature. We try to get the main bacteria kill right at the beginning of the process,” Poisl adds.

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