Standards on Length of Retention Sampling

Can someone provide any links or information regarding standards and guidelines for how long should the retention samples be stored for short shelf life ready-to-eat dairy desserts? Should it be for the duration of the shelf life or longer?

Hi Devashree,

As a minimum you should keep the retained samples for the duration of the shelf life.

It would also be an advantage to keep the product after shelf life to test and see the what the product is like in the event a consumer uses the product past its sell by date. 

this document should also help http://www.foodstand...rograms-WEB.pdf

Regards

Murae

Previously I worked with an item that was 7-10 days shelf life, so for our study we kept the product 14 days (basically double) and recorded the data to validate that even though it was marked as best before a certain date that the quality still held up above and beyond. Also periodically we did swab test to verify that the product was still safe at the best before date.