How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

Scientifc, information & consultancy

services for the food indusry

Forum News Authors Consultancy Advertising Search

Enter search terms
Student projects

You are here: Home » Thermal processing » How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using
Excel

Copyright Protected How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

MICROSOFT EXCEL LETHAL RATE CALCULATORS AND TEMPERATURE

TIME INTEGRATORS FOR THERMAL PROCESSES

Science Services
Introduction

DSFT has been
This section provides the context to using Excel to calculate the cumulative lethal
providing science
effects (at all stages during processing) of heat on microorganisms and provides an
based consultancy
explanation of how the Excel spreadsheets and On Line calculators available for
services globally

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

download from the Dairy Science and Food Technology (DSFT) work.
since 2002.
   Here we provide an overview of the background, including a summary of the underlying

Click to learn mathematics, required to produce an Excel spreadsheet for performing basic thermal
more. processing calculations. Note I am not providing a guide to using spreadsheets but
basic information that a competent Excel user should be able to use to make their own
thermal processing spreadsheet.
Translate
Download Excel Thermal Processing Spreadsheets.

Select
Select Language
All thermal process calculations start with a target microorganism. This is usually a
bacterium or spore, selected because it is a pathogen or spoilage organism. The
organism is designated by its Z-value and its reference temperature, Tref. Clostridium
DFST home
botulinum has two variants that must be considered differently in heat treatment
Thermal processes. The non-proteolytic variant that grows at low temperatures produces spores
processing of relatively low resistance to heat whereas the variant concerned with canning low
acid food such as meats and vegetables, produces much more heat resistant spores.
Ice cream
Spores of this variant have a Z-value of 10 ℃, and aTref of 121.1 ℃.
Starter cultures
Some DSFT spreadsheets also calculate the concentration of chemical compounds
Probiotics produced as a result of high temperature processing known as thermal process
indicators or TTI.
Bioactive agents
in milk How do the spreadsheets and the free On Line thermal process calculators

N Ireland food work on the Dairy Science and Food Technology website?
and drink
The calculated cumulative lethality at the Tref is known as the F value. This takes
Bacteriophages
account of the lethal effects during heating, holding at the target processing
Cheese temperature (this can be lower or higher than Tref) and during cooling. The F value
technology obtained using a Z-value of 10 ℃, and a Tref of 121.1 ℃ is known as F0. Note when
temperatures lower than 100°C are used (pasteurising temperatures) P or PU may be
Cheese quality
used instead of F value. This can be confusing and F value has been used throughout
Cheese yield this website to denote the cumulative effects of heat on leathality.

Italian cheeses F values tend to be used up to 121.1 ℃. In UHT-processing, temperatures up to 150

℃ may be used and while F values e.g. F0 must be calculated in some jurisdictions, it
Donations
is increasing common to use B* and C* as indicators of the bacteriological effects of
Microbiology heat against thermophilic sporeformers and the potential adverse chemical effects
respectively. B* and C* are discussed further in the article on UHT-processing.
Primary
production To determine the F value we first calculate the lethal effects of heat at the
temperatures used during the heating process. Lethal rate is calculated using equation
Wine technology
1.
Writing tools
Equation 1. L= 10 (T-Tref/Z).
Packaging and
Where L is the lethal rate or lethality, T is the temperature, in Celsius or in Fahrenheit
labelling
in the US, at which the lethal rate is required and Tref is the reference temperature.
Food models
Note lethal rate is a relative term that compares the microbial killing effect at a
Calculators and measured temperature to one minute at the reference temperature.
models

Thanks

Links to Internet
resources

Food jobs

Legal matters
Tref will vary depending on whether Fo is being calculated or whether a pasteurisation
process or other heat treatment is being assessed. A Tref of 121.1°C or 250°F is used

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

in the determination of Fo. If F90°C or other F value is required then Tref must be set
to this temperature on the spreadsheet or On Line calculator.

The Z-value,  measured in °C or °F can be defined in several ways. The formal way is
to describe it as the reciprocal of the slope of the thermal death curve for the target
microorganism or spore; 10° C is the value frequently used in Fo calculations
performed on low acid foods. An alternative explanation and perhaps one that is easier
to understand, and apply, is that Z is a value expressing the increase in temperature
necessary to obtain the same lethal effect in 1/10 of the time.  The higher the Z value
of the organism, the greater its resistance to heat.

Spreadsheets available from DSFT, with the exception of some demonstration

spreadsheets, allow users to vary the Z-value and the Tref depending on the target
organism being considered. The Z-value has a significant effect on the F value of a
process.

The F value is calculated by determining L at appropriate points from the time vs

lethality curve and integrating the time and L values using numerical integration to
obtain the area under the time–lethality curve.

Numerical integration is used to evaluate a definitive integral when the explicit function
or equation is not known and the lethal rates (or the temperatures used to derive them)
are available in tabular form e.g. on an Excel spreadsheet.

In thermal processing calculations numerical integration is used to find the area under
the lethal rate versus time curve. Two main methods are used, namely the Trapezoid
rule and Simpson’s rules. The Trapezoid rule is the simplest to understand and
implement and despite it being less accurate is generally the method used to calculate
F values in industry.

There are several excellent textbooks and websites that explain numerical integration. 
Liengme (2007) and Billo (2007) have authored books on Excel that explain numerical
integration well and are particularly relevant to scientists and engineers. The website
My Engineering World by Christos Samaras discusses how to determine the area
under a curve.

In thermal processing graphs of time versus lethality are plotted. The values on the X-
axis (horizontal) represent time and the vertical values on the Y-axis represent lethal
rate. The area under the curve can be divided into a series of equally-spaced
trapezoids (Figure 1). The area of trapezoid A1 is given by equation 2.

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

Equation 2. A1 = DX (Yi + Yi+1

                                   2

Where A1 is the area of the trapezoid and DX is the time interval between the values Yi
+ Yi+1.

If we were to convert all the segments to trapezoids, determine their individual areas
then the area under the curve would be approximately equal to the sum of the
individual trapezoids.

The Trapezoid rule as with other methods of numerical integration approximates the
area under a curve. If you look closely at A1 and at the segment of the curve bounded
by Yi to Yi+1 you will note the error introduced by the method in this case, the
trapezoid A1 over estimates the area. However if we  draw a trapezoid to the right of
this, A2, the area of this trapezoid is smaller than the actual segment and hence this
gives an underestimate of the actual area.

A more accurate estimate of the area under a curve can be obtained using one of
Simpson’s rules, namely, Simpson’s 1/3 and / or Simpson’s 3/8 rules.   

Download Excel Thermal Processing Spreadsheets.

A detailed explanation of Simpson’s rules requires a much greater understanding of

mathematics than that required to understand and use the Trapezoid rule and may
explain why the less accurate Trapezoid rule is more widely used.

There is helpful article on Wikipedia (Wikipedia, 2018) that explains the derivation of
Simpson’s rules and their application. The authors include Figure 2 in their explanation.

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

Figure 2. The authors in Wikipedia (2018) explain that Simpson's rule can be derived
by approximating the integrand f (x) (in blue) by the quadratic interpolant P(x) (in red).

How to calculate F values using an Excel spreadsheet?

The time temperature results from a heat treatment process are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Time-temperature readings from thermal treatment process

Time, min Temp, ℃

0 25

1 60

2 85

3 90

4 110

5 119

6 121

7 121

8 110

9 100

10 95

11 90

12 85

13 70

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

14 60

How do we process these values to obtain a value for F0 for this heat treatment? There
are several ways of implementing the Trapezoid Rule. One way is to create 4 columns
in Excel as indicated in Table 2.

 Table 2. Excel spreadsheet for calculating F0

Lethality is calculated using equation 1 by entering the formula  “=10^((B4-121.1)/10)”

(remove the “”) at cell C3 and copying this down to C17. The lethal rates corresponding
to each temperature are given.

The area of each trapezoid is then calculated. The formula “=(C4+C5)/2*(A5-A4)” is

entered into cell D4 and copied down to D17. Finally the area of each trapezoid is
summed at cell D19 to give the approximate area under the curve, F0, = 2.74.

The Trapezoid rule can also be implemented using 1) coefficients, which are slightly
easier to use than the previous method, 2) a dedicated Excel function named
SUMPRODUCT which is much easier to apply and 3) simplest of all by using a custom
VBA function, also called an Excel macro. These custom functions must be specially
written for particular applications. The authors of both text books  previously mentioned
provide free basic macros and Christos Samaras has provided an excellent free macro
on his blog that unlike the ones in the textbooks provides basic error checking and an
explantion of how the code works.

If the Trapezoid rule gives an F0  = 2.74 what value do you get using Simpsons rules?
Using Simpson’s 1/3 Rule a value of F0 of 2.895 is obtained (Table 3).

Table 3. Excel spreadsheet for calculating F0 using Simpson’s 1/3 Rule

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

These calculations can be checked using the Free On Line calculator on the Dairy
Science and food Technology website.

Discrepancies between the two methods of calculation are more common than is
usually realised. In most instances Simpson’s rules give the more accurate result.

A screenshot of the results of the calculation and the lethality time plot for the data in
Table 1 (Figure 3) reveals that the curve is not symmetrical and this is one of the
situations where marked differences between the two methods can be seen.

Figure 3. A screen shot of the data in Table 1 inputted to the Free On Line calculator on
the Dairy Science and food Technology website.

Data validation

Some consideration should be given to data validation especially if other people might
be using the spreadsheet. Most spreadsheets offer a range of data validation inputs for
non-programmers, this facility can be accessed under the Data tab in Excel. Using
validation you might wish to check input data for blank cells, text and negative
numbers for example.

Macros can also be written to do this e.g. the following portion of a simple macro
checks if cells in a previously defined range contain numbers and if not (contains text)

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]
How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using Excel

will give an alert and change the cell colour to red.

''''

Ensure values are NOT letters

If Not IsNumeric(Cell.Value) Then
MsgBox ("Values can only be numeric." & vbNewLine & _
"Change '" & Cell.Value & "' in " & Cell.Address & " to a numeric value.")
Cell.Interior.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0)
End If

'''''

It might also be useful to define the minimum number of time-temperature values

before the calculation can proceed. Again, this is easily done using a macro.

Recommended reading

Billo, E.J. (2007). Excel for Scientists and Engineers – Numerical Methods. John Wiley
and Sons, Inc.

Liengme, B.V. and Ellert, D.J. (2007). A Guide to Microsoft Excel 2007 for Scientists
and Engineers. Elsevier Ltd.

Samaras, C. (2013). Numerical Integration in Excel Using the Trapezoidal

Rule. Available from:
https://www.myengineeringworld.net/2013/06/integration-in-excel-
trapezoidal-rule.htmll. Accessed 20 May 2018.

Wikipedia (2018). Simpson's rule [online]. Available from:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_rule>. Accessed 2 May 2018

Download Excel Thermal Processing Spreadsheets.

How to cite this article

Mullan, W.M.A. (2018).

How to calculate F or P values of thermal processes using
Excel.
[On-line]. Available from: https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-
processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html . Accessed: 17 July, 2019.  

Privacy and cookies ⊥ Contact us ⊥ Site map ⊥ Submit an article © 2002 - Present. All Rights Reserved. Dairy Science and Food
Technology.

https://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/thermal-processing/304-excel-spreadsheets.html[17/07/2019 11:35:01]