INDIVIDUALLY TRACEABLE MULTI-FUNCTIONAL CARRIER PARTICLES FOR VALIDATION OF CONTINUOUS FLOW THERMAL PROCESSING OF PARTICLE-CONTAINING FOODS AND BIOMATERIALS

1 . A fabricated device designed to simulate biomaterial products being processed using continuous flow thermal sterilization, comprising:

a polymer carrier structure with conservative flow and thermal;

an identifier for identifying individual particle shells using at least one of letters, numbers, symbols, and color codes;

at least one primary implant enabling tracking and residence time measurement while travelling through the processing system in real time;

at least one secondary implant containing at least one of viable microbial cells, viable microbial spores, enzymes, DNA, RNA, and other sub-cellular entities; and

at least one indicator enabling determination of viability or inactivation of at least one of the secondary implants following at least one of incubation and chemical treatment.

2 . The fabricated device of claim 1 , wherein the biomaterial products comprise food particles containing food.

3 . The fabricated device of claim 1 , wherein the polymer carrier structure with conservative flow is faster than any biomaterial particle contained in the biomaterial product.

4 . The fabricated device of claim 3 , wherein the biomaterial particles are food particles.

5 . The fabricated device of claim 1 , wherein the polymer carrier structure with conservative thermal is slower heating than any biomaterial particle contained in the biomaterial product.

6 . The fabricated device of claim 1 , wherein the identifier is at least one of a marking and a coding on the particle shell.

7 . A method of determining proper processing of particle containing biomaterials, the method comprising:

preparing at least one simulated particle comprising the fabricated device of claim 1 ;

inserting the at least one simulated particle into a continuous flow thermal processing system capable of sterilization of particle containing biomaterials;

monitoring movement of the at least one simulated particle through the processing system using at least one monitoring detection station, sensor, or sensor array;

capturing the at least one simulated particle following insertion into the processing system and exposure to a representative thermal processing treatment;

incubating the at least one captured simulated particle for a sufficient time and at a sufficient temperature to cause growth or chemical state change of at least one biological entity; and

determining a proper processing status of the processed product by evaluating the growth or absence of growth or chemical change in a secondary implant.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein when the particle containing foods have been properly processed, the particle containing foods are sterile, and wherein the proper processing status is sterility of the processed product.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the particle containing biomaterials comprise food comprising food particles.

10 . A sterilized shelf stable biomaterial product obtained by implementing the principles and procedures defined by any one or more of claims 1 and 7 .

11 . The sterilized shelf stable biomaterial product of claim 10 , wherein the biomaterial product is a food product.