In response to the requests from leading global food processing companies and the desire to ultimately lead to science-based regulations and industrial practices,this Commercially Sterile Packaged Foods (CSPF) training manual developed within the Joint Institute of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) at the University of Maryland focuses on the principles of establishing and running a thermal process that could be applied to heat-processed food packaging and sterilization systems for rigid,semi-rigid and flexible comainers.