A thermal food process that is used to destroy spores of the pathogenic bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It involves heating the food to 121°C and holding the temperature for three minutes which corresponds to twelve successful decimal reductions or 12-D. A decimal reduction is the time required to reduce a population of viable spores ten-fold. A 12-D process therefore corresponds to reducing 1 million million spores to a single surviving spore, which statistically is negligible, thereby rendering the food safe to consume. It is also known as a 12-D process.