The present invention discloses a method of sterilizing whole nuts includes pre-cooking said nuts in a pre-cooking unit to a core temperature T1 at a pressure P1 for a time t1, transferring said nuts to a sterilizing line, said sterilizing line adapted to permit the transport of said nuts through a sequence of process elements, said sequence of process elements comprising a reservoir, at least one feed pump, a consecutive arrangement of heat exchangers, and a filling machine and/or an aseptic tank, and sterilizing said nuts in said sterilizing line.
