pasteurization

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or process of heating a food, especially a beverage such as milk or beer, to a specific temperature for a specific period of time in order to kill microorganisms that could cause disease, spoilage, or undesired fermentation.
• noun The act or process of destroying most microorganisms in certain foods, such as raw meat or fresh fruits and vegetables, by irradiating them with gamma rays or other radiation to prevent spoilage.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The preserving of wines or other fermented liquids from deterioration, by destroying the fungi and their spores that would be productive of further and deleterious changes. This is effected by heating the liquid to at least 140°F. Also spelled Pasteurisation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A process devised by Pasteur for preventing or checking fermentation in fluids, such as wines, milk, etc., by exposure to a temperature of 140° F., thus destroying the vitality of the contained microorganisms.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Alternative spelling of pasteurisation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun partial sterilization of foods at a temperature that destroys harmful microorganisms without major changes in the chemistry of the food