A means of obtaining long-term microbiological stability for non-dried foods without the use of refrigeration, by prolonged heating in hermetically sealed containers, such as cans or retortable pouches, to render the contents of the container sterile. This entry does not deal with the detailed stages of the entire canning process, e.g. The pre-processing steps such as preparation of the fish, brining, salting, smoking, marinating, or the process steps of pre-cooking, exhausting, sealing, seal integrity, retorting, and post-process cooling.