Enhancing natural convective heat transfer in canned food sterilization is explored through modifications to container geometry and its orientation. A conical geometry, of equal volume and height as that of the cylinder, pointing either vertically up or down was considered. The non-Newtonian fluid, 0.85% w/w sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose (CMC), was taken as the test food material and its laminar flow behavior was investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The movement of the slowest heating zone (SHZ) temperature was tracked and compared for the three geometries. The SHZ temperature was observed to attain the final sterilization fluid temperature of 100 degrees C fastest for an upright conical geometry followed by the cylinder and the downward pointing cone. There is scope for enhancing the thermal sterilization process through geometry modifications but without mechanical agitation or rotation. Further, the geometry modification if non-uniform must be complemented by its suitable orientation. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.