Shaka Retort now off-patent

Five years ago, the first production-scale Shaka agitation retort introduced shorter sterilisation times while improving the taste and quality of shelf-stable foods.

Shaka retorts agitate packaging with intense horizontal back and forth movement equivalent to two g-force. This level of agitation rapidly creates a uniform internal heat map within the package. Faster sterilisation lowers thermal load and improves taste and appearance. The Allpax test kitchen research shows that the quality of foods produced by the Shaka process is comparable to that produced by aseptic packaging at a fraction of the cost of aseptic systems. A single production unit is capable of sterilising approximately 4000 kg of product/hour.

Shaka technology, which agitates foods for faster and more uniform heat transfer within a package and consequently slashes processing time, started with the idea to improve existing products in terms of taste and appearance. However, through product testing with the multimode Allpax R&D Shaka retort in the Allpax test kitchen, it has been realised that there are novel opportunities to develop unique shelf-stable products that have not historically performed well in traditional retort applications and are currently positioned in more expensive refrigerated or frozen formats. Examples include pureed foods such as guacamole, humus and baby foods. It also is suitable for thick sauces, pasta combinations and some seafood products.

The Shaka process patent expired in 2016 and with it the royalties companies paid to the UK-based process developer. This makes investment in the fast sterilisation system more attractive.