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One pasteurisation unit is one minute at the reference temperature, and the lethal rate at any other temperature is 10^((T - Tref)/z). Beer is usually assessed at 60 C with z = 7, where 15-30 PU is typical; juice and dairy use different reference and z values. PU accumulate through heating, holding and cooling.
Pasteurisation units
PU = time x 10^((T - T_reference) / z)
Pasteurisation schedules are food safety critical and must be validated against the target organism for the specific product and verified by continuous monitoring.
With z = 7, every 7 degrees multiplies lethality by ten. Running at 67 C instead of 60 C delivers ten times the PU in the same time — and can over-pasteurise, damaging flavour.
Yes. Integrating the lethal rate over the whole time-temperature profile typically adds 20-50% to the PU delivered in a tunnel pasteuriser compared with the hold phase alone.