Berner Food and Beverage Inc. operates three facilities with more than 215,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehousing space. Berner does two primary heat processes to make food products shelf-stable. The first process is commonly referred to as “hot fill” and uses a multi-control system of heat, water activity control, pH and salts to make products shelf-stable. This process is a pre-closure cooking system and depends on the heat of the product to sterilize the container into which it is filled. The second process is “retort” processing. This process is often used with low acid products and uses a high temperature cook in a pressurized vessel to make products shelf-stable. Retort is a post closure cooking system. Berner’s retort systems are state of the art continuous agitation cooking vessels.