Nine years have passed since the second edition of the Handbook of Aseptic Processing and Packaging was published. Significant changes have taken place in several aseptic processing and packaging areas. These include aseptic filling of plant-based beverages for non-refrigerated shelf-stable formats for longer shelf life and sustainable packaging along with cost of environmental benefits to leverage savings on energy and carbon footprint. In addition, insight into safe processing of particulates using two- and three-dimensional thermal processing followed by prompt cooling is provided.

In the third edition, the editors have compiled contemporary topics with information synthesized from internationally recognized authorities in their fields. In addition to updated information, 12 new chapters have been added in this latest release with content on

• Design of the aseptic processing system and thermal processing
• Thermal process equipment and technology for heating and cooling
• Flow and residence time distribution (RTD) for homogeneous and heterogeneous fluids
• Thermal process and optimization of aseptic processing containing solid particulates
• Aseptic filling and packaging equipment for retail products and food service
• Design of facility, infrastructure, and utilities
• Cleaning and sanitization for aseptic processing and packaging operations
• Microbiology of aseptically processed and packaged products
• Risk-based analyses and methodologies
• Establishment of "validated state" for aseptic processing and packaging systems
• Quality and food safety management systems for aseptic and extended shelf life (ESL) manufacturing
• Computational and numerical models and simulations for aseptic processing
• Also, there are seven new appendices on original patents, examples of typical thermal process calculations, and particulate studies--single particle and multiple-type particles, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) filing

The three editors and 22 contributors to this volume have more than 250 years of combined experience encompassing manufacturing, innovation in processing and packaging, R&D, quality assurance, and compliance. Their insight provides a comprehensive update on this rapidly developing leading-edge technology for the food processing industry.

The future of aseptic processing and packaging of foods and beverages will be driven by customer-facing convenience and taste, use of current and new premium clean label natural ingredients, use of multifactorial preservation or hurdle technology for maximizing product quality, and sustainable packaging with claims and messaging.

Jairus R. D. David, Ph.D., is a thought leader in the agro-food industry and an expert on food preservation science, food safety and quality. His industrial experience spans family-owned small companies and large corporations--highly regulated baby foods, infant formula, consumer-packaged goods, and food service. Jairus has worked with the food industry in developing microbiology and thermal processing food safety objectives and compliance for canning and aseptic processing for over 38 years, balancing applied research with process and quality optimization, and launch of innovative products. He has developed natural and clean label ingredients systems, especially antimicrobial preservatives for designing minimally-processed foods.

Jairus has co-authored several refereed papers, book chapters, and patents. He has also co-edited books on Aseptic Processing and Packaging (1st edition 1996, 2nd edition 2013, Russian translation, 2014), Antimicrobials in Food (2021). Jairus is adjunct faculty at the departments of Food Science & Nutrition at Mississippi State University at Starkville, Mississippi, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Nebraska, and Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa.

Jairus is currently Principal Consultant at JRD Food Technology Consulting, LLC., Omaha, Nebraska. More information can be found at WWW.JRDFoodTech.com. He is open for both domestic and international assignments, able and willing to do pro bono consulting projects in developing "Third-world" and "Fourth-world" countries, rural communities, and non-profit organizations.

Pablo M Coronel, Ph.D., is a thought leader in the food industry and authority on food safety and quality. Pablo has worked with the food industry in scaling up products from benchtop to industrial scale in several fields. Most of his work has been on developing advanced thermal processing and validation methods and technologies for aseptic processing of heterogeneous foods. His industrial experience spans working for family-owned small companies and large corporations - highly regulated consumer-packaged goods, and food service.

Pablo is the recipient of IFT's prestigious Industrial Scientist Award (2015), as well as being part of 2 different IFT Industrial Achievement Award teams (2009 and 2015). He is recognized for developing continuous flow microwave processing in industrial settings.

Pablo is currently Director of Food Safety and thermal process authority in CRB Consulting Engineers, Kansas City, Missouri, and adjunct faculty at the department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences of North Carolina State University.

Josip Simunovic, Ph.D., is an educator, researcher, inventor, developer and co-founder of food technology startups.

For over 30 years his work has focused on development and commercialization of novel, advanced thermal and aseptic processing and packaging technologies, methods and devices for their monitoring and safety validation, as well as production of new food and beverage products enabled by implementation of these technologies. Continuous flow microwave processing, an advanced thermal processing technology for pasteurization, sterilization and aseptic processing of foods was developed by his teams at NC State University, as well as the comprehensive system of tools for monitoring and validation of safety of aseptic foods containing solid particles. These developments resulted in the first FDA clearance of microwave sterilized homogeneous low acid food, and the first FDA clearance of microwave sterilized complex particulate food and have been recognized with IFT Industrial Achievement Awards in 2009 and 2015, IFT Food Expo Innovation Award in 2015 and Edison Innovation Awards in 2015 and 2016.

Josip is a named inventor on 20 issued U.S. Patents which provide the intellectual property foundation for several startup businesses. Josip is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists, and has been recognized with the 2008 Food Engineering Award by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2012 Marvin Tung Award from the Institute for Thermal Processing Specialists and 2016 IFT Research and Development Award.

Josip is currently employed as a Research Professor with the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at NC State University, and also serves as the Chief Science Officer of SinnovaTek Inc.