Current scientific practices and legal reality are discussed related to process modeling of food quality. Historically, microbial safety was the focus, using simple first-order kinetics, known as the D-z concept. The impressive safety record of heated processed foods made this the standard in every food engineering textbook, and adopted by food safety authorities. However, procedures are empirically adjusted to prevent spoilage and extend shelf life. Points of criticism are: i) more advanced models and computational methods allow for better optimization, ii) too strong a focus on fitting experimental results rather than on predictive power of models, iii) choice of process targets and emerging targets, iv) new preservation technologies have a hard time to prove themselves when heating remains the legal bench mark, v) nutritional value, organoleptic properties, sustainability demand more attention nowadays. In conclusion, models for co-optimization of relevant quality attributes should become the focus rather than only safety; legal rules should be revisited.

讨论了与食品质量过程建模相关的当前科学实践和法律现实。从历史上看，微生物安全性是人们关注的焦点，它使用简单的一阶动力学（称为Dz）概念。加热加工食品的出色安全记录使该标准成为每本食品工程教科书中的标准，并被食品安全当局采用。但是，根据经验调整了程序，以防止损坏和延长保质期。批评的焦点是：i）更高级的模型和计算方法可以实现更好的优化； ii）过于注重拟合实验结果，而不是模型的预测能力； iii）选择过程目标和新兴目标； iv）新保存当加热仍然是合法基准时，技术很难证明自己。v）如今，营养价值，感官特性，可持续性需要更多的关注。总之，相关质量属性的共同优化模型应该成为关注的焦点，而不仅仅是安全性；