Pasteurization is a process by which milk, or other liquids in which disease-causing micro-organisms may be present, is heated to a particular specified temperature for a short length of time, before being very rapidly cooled.
This is long enough to kill, or render unviable, most of the micro-organisms within the liquid, so shelf-life is extended to several months, but the product will still eventually decay.
Some of the serious diseases that pasteurization of milk has helped to control are listeria, salmonella ("food-poisoning") and diphtheria.
Anne Evans
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