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Canning product in small batches can be done using bath or pressure canning. But it takes a long time for canning a small batch. I was wondering how big companies do it at large scales.

verbose
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AliBZ
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about cooking, but industrial processes. – GdD Feb 14 '17 at 11:11

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What I've seen (on TV, not in person) is typically somewhat different than a home process - the food is sealed in the cans (raw) and then run through a giant pressure cooker, typically on some sort of conveyor system, and spends a number of hours being cooked in the cans at the same time as it's being "canned" (heat-processed to kill bacteria) - at least this seems to apply to canned beans. Labels are applied after the can has cooled.

Ecnerwal
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    I've always just assumed they're an oven or hot water bath that the conveyor belt ...For a pressure cooker, you'd have to seal the cans in, which means breaking the constant feed from the conveyors. – Joe Feb 14 '17 at 04:20
  • @Joe the point is that a hot water bath can't get hot enough (without pressure) for sufficient heat processing. Not much survives boiling water, but some of the species that do are real nasties. An oven might work but as the cans spend some time cooking a conveyor might not be the most space-efficient approach at that stage anyway. – Chris H Feb 14 '17 at 06:58
  • @Ecnerwal so you are saying big companies use bigger version of pressure canners like this https://www.amazon.ca/National-Presto-01781-23-Quart-Pressure/dp/B0000BYCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487058070&sr=8-1&keywords=pressure+canner? – AliBZ Feb 14 '17 at 07:41
  • So my point is do big companies use the same techniques or there is another way that cannot be done at home. If it's the same technique and just bigger equipments, then the problem is solved! – AliBZ Feb 14 '17 at 07:42
  • It's a simple enough technical issue to have an airlock/steamlock that accepts some number of cans at a time when you are building a cooker the size of a house in a factory... I would say that the process is not "exactly he same as at home" on a number of fronts - I don't know anyone that uses metal cans at home, for a start, and home processes are generally tuned to "cook the food, pack it hot, process it" rather than combining cooking and processing. – Ecnerwal Feb 14 '17 at 14:51
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    @AliBZ : it'd likely be more like an industrial autoclave, where it's a large pressurized room. I've been in ones that could fit an SUV in it. (and they were installing one that could fit a shipping container ... this was a place that made airplane parts). But those would bake at 350°F to 450°F ... so they'd take an hour to get up to temp, cook for 3-4 hours, then cool off for a couple of hours before they'd break the seal and open it. Then 30-45 minutes of venting before we'd go in and retrieve parts. – Joe Feb 14 '17 at 15:12
  • @Ecnerwal Upon thinking more about it -- I suspect that the cans are *not* put through any form of pressurized atmosphere. Because they're sealed before cooking, and the level of moisture and temperature are tightly controlled, they could easily be creating pressure inside the can, turning every one into its own little pressurized vessel. – Joe Feb 14 '17 at 16:03
  • You would be wrong. You need steam for fast, efficient heat transfer, and you need pressure to get adequate temperature from steam. An oven would be russian roulette - a vessel filled with 15 PSI steam is 252F *everywhere* for as long as that steam pressure is held, making for a nice predictable, safe process. – Ecnerwal Feb 15 '17 at 03:09