New Heating Technologies Open Up Opportunities For Campbell And The Soup Industry

By Isaac Fletcher, contributing writer, Food Online

Innovations currently in development could allow soup manufacturers’ final product to better retain color and nutrients

In order to eliminate pathogens during canned soup production, soup is held at a high temperature and then cooled.  This process, though a necessary one, ends up depleting the final product of nutrients and altering the soup’s color. However, the development of new technologies could provide a solution that still meets sanitary standards and leaves the final product with more nutrients, flavor, and appetizing color.

One of these technologies, Ohmic heating, has been used in the dairy industry for sterilization, but Campbell Soup is experimenting with applying the process to aseptic soups and juices. In an Ohmic heating process, electricity is run through the food in order to heat it up. Dave Watson, vice-president of engineering for Campbell Soup/Pepperidge Farm says that Ohmic heating applied to aseptic products would result in a faster, more efficient sterilization process — when compared to conventional retort heating — and leave soup with a firm, al dente bite.

Microwave-assisted thermal sterilization (MATS), another emerging technology, may allow soup manufacturers to better retain nutrients, achieve better color and flavor, and extend the product’s shelf life.  The process, which has been in development for about 15 years, functions by immersing food in pressurized hot water while simultaneously heating it with microwaves at a frequency of 915 MHz — a frequency that penetrates food more thoroughly than the 2450 MHz used in home microwaves.  The combination of pressurized water and microwaves eliminates pathogens and microorganisms, leaving a higher quality end product than traditional processing.  “It’s at a very early stage,” Watson says. “It shows great promise for thermal processed foods.”

These heating processes could completely change the way that soup manufacturers create products, with improvements in nutrition, color, and taste.  The processes not only improve product quality, but do so more quickly while still meeting the require safety standards and resulting in longer shelf life.  Watson labels these types of technology as disruptive innovations — ones that will eventually replace existing technology and create a new market — which will help the company reach consumers at the bottom end of the market.  Disruptive innovations are risky when compared to sustained innovations — launching a new product or improving an existing product — but Watson argues that companies are aware of them and many are ready to embrace them.  With the benefits of the new heating technologies, most soup manufacturers will have to adapt in order to produce a competitive product.