The industrial sterilization of canned foods is a process in which there usually occurs a degradation of the nutrients and -a deterioration of the qualitative properties due to the temperature to which the food is overexposed in order to assure sterilization. In this work we face the problem using optimal control methods. Linear constraints on the control and nonlinear ones on the state will appear as a consequence of the technological restrictions and the request for quality and economy. Besides an existence result for the optimal control and an optimality system we give numerical results for some real industrial examples. They show that present industrial sterilization processes can be improved in terms of saving energy and nutrient retention.