Cooking, Baking & Process Heat
Ovens, fryers, retorts and pasteurisers: where the thermal energy goes, and why regeneration makes pasteurisation astonishingly cheap when it's designed in.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
Cooking is the reason a food factory exists, and it is where the gas goes. Whether the site boils, bakes, fries or sterilises, the thermal kill step is non-negotiable: food safety law requires the product to reach a verified temperature for a verified time. What is negotiable is how much energy each cooked tonne drags along with it, and the range across the industry is enormous, because process heat offers more recovery and less scrutiny than any other load on site. This lesson tours the main heating technologies and works through the sector's great quiet triumph: regenerative pasteurisation.