Shelf life Determination of

foods
 Definition of Shelf life
• Fu and Labuza (1993): “The shelf life of a food is the time
period for the product to become unacceptable from sensory,
nutritional or safety perspectives.”

• Ellis (1994) defined shelf life of a food product as “the time

between the production and packaging of the product and
the point at which it becomes unacceptable under defined
environmental conditions.”
 Definition of Shelf life
• The IFST Guidelines (1993) defined shelf life as
the time during which the food product will
a) remain safe
b) retain desired sensory, chemical, physical and
microbiological characteristics; and
c) comply with any label declaration of nutritional
data, when stored under the recommended
conditions.
 Labeling regulations

• Regulations on labeling of shelf-life information

on food products vary from country to country.

• Manufacturers can choose from:

• use by,
• best before, or
• expires .
 Factors influencing shelf-life

• Many factors can influence shelf-life, and

can be categorised into intrinsic and
extrinsic factors (IFST, 1993).
 Factors influencing shelf-life
• Intrinsic factors are the properties of the final product:
✓ Water activity (aw ) (available water).
✓ pH value and total acidity; type of acid.
✓ Redox potential (Eh ).
✓ Available oxygen.
✓ Nutrients.
✓ Natural microflora and surviving microbiological counts.
✓ Natural biochemistry of the product formulation
(enzymes, chemical reactants).
✓ Use of preservatives in product formulation (e.g. salt).
 Factors influencing shelf-life
• Extrinsic factors are influenced by such variables as raw
material type and quality, and product formulation and
structure.
✓ Time– temperature profile during processing; pressure in
the headspace.
✓ Temperature control during storage and distribution.
✓ Relative humidity (RH) during processing, storage and
distribution.
✓ Exposure to light (UV and IR) during processing, storage
and distribution.
 Factors influencing shelf-life

✓ Environmental microbial counts during processing,

storage and distribution.
✓ Composition of atmosphere within packaging.
✓ Subsequent heat treatment (e.g. reheating or cooking
before consumption).
✓ Consumer handling.
 Shelf life of foods is sensory
shelf life
• Some of the variables that must be considered when
dealing with shelf life are as follows: the nature of the
food, its composition, the ingredients, the processing it
went through, the packaging used for its protection,
storage conditions, distribution, and handling - both by
retailers and the consumer.

• It is well known that these factors can have a negative

influence on the quality attributes of a food product.
 Assessment of sensory shelf life

• Assessment of sensory shelf-life can therefore be

approached in one of two ways:
❖ from measurement of sensory characteristics,
❖ from measurement of consumer liking.
 Phương Pháp Đánh Giá Cảm Quan

Câu hỏi Phương pháp

Các sản phẩm có khác nhau? (công Phép thử phân biệt
thức, công nghệ, bảo quản, v.v…) (Discrimination Tests)
Nếu các sản phẩm là khác biệt, sự Phân tích mô tả
khác biệt là như thế nào? (Bản chất, (Descriptive analysis)
mức độ, v.v…)
Sự chấp nhận của sản phẩm là gì?. Phép thử thị hiếu
Sản phẩm được ưu thích so với các (Affective/Hedonic
sản phẩm? Tests)
 QUALITY CRITERIA

Schematic view of how a

product’s shelf life can be
assigned.
Common quality criteria that determine a food product’s shelf life are:

1. Sensory—e.g., overall assessment of taste, smell, appearance,

texture, and detection of off flavor or odor

2. Chemical—e.g., vitamin loss, peroxides formation, accumulation

of a Maillard reaction product, and pH change.

3. Physical—e.g., phase change or separation, sedimentation, color

loss, turbidity, gelling, undesirable hardening through drying or
softening by moisture sorption, and caking

4. Microbial—e.g., rise in the total bacterial count and the growth of

a specific organism or type of organisms.
There are three issues that need to be considered:

1. How many samples should be inspected or tested and at

what frequency?

2. Where should the samples be taken from?

3. How can we tell that the samples are representative,

especially if taken when the product is already in the
market?

• There are no simple answers to these questions. However,

there are several statistical sampling plans, with incorporated
decision criteria, that can serve as guidelines.
The design of shelf-life experiments

A partially staggered design for shelf-life testing

 Methods of Shelf Life Assessment

1. Consumer Consideration in Shelf Life Determination

2. Parallel Storage

3. Accelerated storage
Consumer Consideration in Shelf Life Determination
 Parallel Storage
• Parallel storage would be particularly useful to new products
on the market, where previous experience with similar
products might not be sufficient to establish their durability.

• In principle, the more samples are stored and tested, the more
reliable the results are.

• However, increasing the “level of inspection” comes at a cost.

Schematic view of the inverse relation between the cost of testing
and the risk of unanticipated quality deterioration or spoilage.
 PRINCIPLES OF ACCELERATED STORAGE

• Temperature manipulation is an effective means to control

the rate of biological and biochemical processes, which is
widely exploited in industrial and domestic situations.

• Generally, increasing the temperature accelerates biological

and chemical processes and therefore their outcome becomes
detectible or evident sooner.

➔ Accelerated storage is based on this idea.

 PRINCIPLES OF ACCELERATED STORAGE

• In order to interpret the information obtained from

elevated temperature experiments and use it to predict
changes that would occur under normal storage
conditions, we need a kinetic theory and mathematical
models.

• These not only explain the results but also enable their
extrapolation by quantifying the temperature’s role.
 Schematic view of the principle underlying the use of
accelerated storage to predict a process’s deterioration rate.
• Temperature is not only the most prominent factor that affects
foods deterioration rate, but also the easiest to control under
laboratory conditions.

• There are also well-developed theories of its effect on chemical

and biochemical reactions and on microbial growth.

• Ideally, at least four constant storage temperatures would be

recommended. It is also advisable to store the product under
variable temperature conditions, too.

• The results of such storage can be used to validate the kinetic

model and test its ability to predict changes that occur in the
market, where the temperature almost always fluctuates.
• Acceleration of foods deterioration can be achieved by
other means, too.

✓ Storage at high relative humidity and under high oxygen

tension are two of the most notable examples.

✓ One can also accelerate the process by combining

elevated temperature and high relative humidity, with or
without oxygen-enriched atmosphere.
Recommended accelerated shelf life temperatures for foods
 SHELF LIFE MODELING

1. Linear Deterioration Kinetics

2. Effect of Temperature on the Rate Constant

3. Nonlinear Deterioration Kinetics

4. Spoilage Risk Assessment

5. Single versus Multiple Quality Parameters

The kinetic model approach is the most common method for
accelerated shelf life testing. The basic process involves the
following steps:

1. Selection of the desired kinetically active factors for

acceleration of the deterioration process.

2. Running a kinetic study of the deterioration process at such

levels of the accelerating factors that the rate of
deterioration is fast enough.

3. By evaluating the parameters of the kinetic model,

extrapolating the data to normal storage conditions.

4. Use the extrapolated data or the kinetic model to predict

shelf-life at actual storage conditions.
Schematic diagram of data extrapolation in accelerated shelf-life testing
 Linear Deterioration Kinetics
Consider the simple scenario of an isothermal deteriorative
process or reaction that can be monitored through an effective
chemical marker whose concentration can be easily determined.

where C(t) and Co are the momentary and initial concentrations,

respectively.
Y (t ) versus time can be a decay function (e.g., vitamin loss) or
a growth function (e.g., accumulation of an oxidation product and
a brown color intensification).
• Perhaps, the most common decay pattern is the one
that follows the first-order kinetics.

where k (T ) is the exponential decay rate constant at a

given absolute temperature, T. On integration, this model
yields
 Effect of Temperature on the Rate Constant
• Traditionally, it has been assumed that the temperature
dependence of such processes’ rate constant follows the
Arrhenius equation.

where:
• kTref is the rate at a reference temperature Tref,
• Ea: an “energy of activation”,
• R: the universal gas constant.
 Effect of Temperature on the
Rate Constant
• According to this model, a plot of loge [k(T)] versus 1/T
(in degree Kelvin reciprocals) is a straight line whose slope
is Ea/R .

• Once Ea/R is known, one can choose any convenient

reference temperature and rate in order to calculate the
value of k(T) at any given temperature T.

• Notice that Ea could at best be used as a comparative

measure of a process rate’s temperature sensitivity.
• Once the temperature dependence of the rate constant
has been determined, through Arrhenius equation or an
alternative model, it can be combined with the original
rate model to predict the decay or growth pattern under
non-isothermal conditions, too.
• For example, if one could safely assume that a vitamin loss
follows a first-order kinetics at all pertinent temperatures,
then one could also generate a Y(t ) or C(t ) versus time
curve for any temperature history, T(t ).
• If indeed the exponential rate constant k (T ) varies with
temperature according to the Arrhenius equation, then
the Y (t ) versus time relation would be
• The criterion of the product’s useful shelf life can be
expressed either in terms of a ratio or the chosen quality
index’s absolute magnitude.
• For example, one can define 50% loss of a vitamin, say, as
indicating the end of the product’s useful life.

• The same is applicable to microbial spoilage, where the actual

count, and not the growth ratio, determines whether the
product is still edible and safe to eat.
 Nonlinear Deterioration Kinetics
• The assumption that food deterioration can be characterized by a
single rate constant need not be always justified. (e.g. microbial
growth).

• Even under isothermal conditions, the plot of the number of cells

versus time is a sigmoid curve of a kind that requires at least
three growth parameters for its mathematical characterization.

• In most cases, to do the same for microbial growth will require

the numerical solution of a rate model (i.e., a differential
equation) having four to six coefficients, which need to be
determined experimentally (instead of the two in the linear case).
• Nonlinear kinetics can also be found in certain vitamin
degradation processes, and lipid oxidation.

• This is because, even under isothermal conditions, the rate

of change is not only a function of temperature but also a
function of time as well.

• In principle, the choice of models to describe the

isothermal deterioration curve and the temperature
dependence of its parameters should have little effect on
the prediction, as long as the gap between the accelerated
and normal conditions is not too large.
 A schematic view of the construction of the whole
deterioration curve from accelerated storage data.
(Left) chemical degradation and (right) microbial growth.
 Spoilage Risk Assessment
• Once a rate model has been constructed, as already mentioned,
it can be run repeatedly for a variety of plausible scenarios.

• These may include random temperature oscillations within a

specified range of amplitudes and frequencies.

• If a spoilage criterion has been established, e.g., an

unacceptable low level of a nutrient loss or an unacceptable
high level of oxidation, discoloration, or microbial growth, then
computer simulations could provide the most probable times at
which these levels would be reached.
 (a) Simulated random temperature histories of a hypothetical food
product, (b) the corresponding degradation curves of its quality, and (c)
the distribution of the quality index at the end of the storage period.
 Single versus Multiple Quality Parameters

• A food product’s acceptability is rarely determined by a

single quality attribute.

• During handling, transportation, and storage, the various

deteriorative processes need not follow the same kinetics.
The same can be said about their interactions. Multiple
operating processes generate significant consequences.
 Schematic (exaggerated) view of the potential differential effect of
temperature on a product’s assigned shelf life when monitored through a
process whose rate has weak r strong temperature dependence
 SHELF LIFE ASSESSMENT
STRATEGIES IN AN INDUSTRIAL
ENVIRONMENT
1. Minimal testing and short planned shelf life.

2. Intensive testing and long planned shelf life.

3. Combined laboratory, market, and consumers monitoring.

4. Feedback and update.

Conclusion