81-5 |
Predictive shelf life testing |
T. P. LABUZA, Dept. of Food Science & Nutrition, Univ. of Minnesota, 1354 Eckles Ave., Saint Paul, MN 55108 The fact that foods are diverse, complex and active systems, in which microbiological, chemical, enzymatic and physicochemical reactions can simultaneously take place, evaluating shelf life is an arduous task. Maintenance of quality and safety is dependent on the understanding of these reactions, the influence of the environment and the successful limitation of the ones most responsible for spoilage or loss of desirable characteristics .The shelf life of a food is based on the %of consumers a company is willing to displease at a given point in time and for the given distribution conditions. It is the period the product will retain an acceptable level of eating quality for that given % of consumers from a organoleptic point of view, while still maintaining safety, and depends on four main factors, namely formulation, processing, packaging and storage conditions. Many companies print some form of open date (eg best if used by or use by) on the product label to give assurance to the consumer that indeed the product can deliver the desired organoleptic traits. In most real life situations time limitations in research and development preclude scientists from conducting real time shelf life testing. To answer the critical questions of "what is the shelf life of the food?" or "will it reach the consumer in acceptable quality?" food scientists responsible for product development resort to educated guesses based on the particular processing scheme and estimated distribution conditions as well as and experience or run limited experiments under abuse conditions and try to extrapolate the obtained limited data to the projected shelf life. This presentation will review the basic kinetic approach that can be utilized for shelf life estimation with a high degree of confidence and relate that to sensory acceptability.
Session 81, Maximizing shelf life through product formulation and packaging
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