Shelf Life Testing

Hello all,

I just have a question regarding shelf life testing of temperature sensitive products that need to be refrigerated. How do you go about conducting a shelf life study?  the environment? tools? durations? we process noodles that are kept in <41F environment. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Hello all,

 

I just have a question regarding shelf life testing of temperature sensitive products that need to be refrigerated. How do you go about conducting a shelf life study?  the environment? tools? durations? we process noodles that are kept in <41F environment. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Hi manwelim,

You need to do a risk assessment to decide the specific characteristic for determining the shelf life, ie either (1) safety-related hazards, eg microbial pathogens or (2) non-safety related hazards, eg taste,texture.

For example, why are you storing it at a chilled temperature ?

Hello Manwellm,

We have identical product. Our is refrigerated but our storage temp is 0-2 deg. C. Our declared shelf-life is from our sister company file which is also based from literature. Shell-life study is a validation/verification step that your scheduled process can give you that declared product shelf-life.

If you are aiming for a certification, (ex. GFSI scheme), you need to have training to conduct shelf-life study. In our case though we have training, we need to invest big amount for equipment plus the tedious monitoring and testing. What we did is, we tap the service of a TPL which is an ISO 17025 accredited to conduct the testing. 

regards,

redfox

Hi, 

How do you go about conducting a shelf life study? 

Risk assessment study to be performed. Two methods

a ) Direct - store product at preselected condition ( your case it is 41 Deg F ) for a period of time.  Check regularly safety hazards such as Chemical and Microbiological and non-safety hazard texture, taste and etc., ( as mentioned above by Charles. C ) 

b) Indirect -  Accelerated storage or predictive microbiological modeling to determine shelf life 

the environment?

Temperature controlled condition ( i,e 41 Deg F ) 

tools? 

Require to conduct chemical, microbiological assessment.

Duration? 

Longer than the expected shelf life (it may vary from product to product). 

This is a useful document to get you started: https://www.fsai.ie/...N18_shelf-life/

This is a useful document to get you started: https://www.fsai.ie/...N18_shelf-life/

Hi Des,

I agree it's an impressive document but it is sadly limited in one respect - the scope is only for safety (ie USE BY) shelf-life estimation which is covered in some other articles, albeit often in a less intelligible fashion.

The majority of queries here seem to be related to determining non-safety shelf lives, ie  "BEST BEFORE".

If only fsai.e would issue a Vol2.

Regardless,  thanks for the link.

True Charles, but I think the section on knowing and understanding the characteristics of your product is a good one to focus on as it will be relevant regardless of whether the product requires a use by or best before. If you truly know your product (and processes, distribution etc)  inside out it points you in the direction of what the shelf-life limiting factors will be, and thus what sort of study to do.

I don't think there are plans to issue a Vol 2 to cover best before type shelf-life, FSAI are focused fully on safety rather than quality.

True Charles, but I think the section on knowing and understanding the characteristics of your product is a good one to focus on as it will be relevant regardless of whether the product requires a use by or best before. If you truly know your product (and processes, distribution etc)  inside out it points you in the direction of what the shelf-life limiting factors will be, and thus what sort of study to do.

I don't think there are plans to issue a Vol 2 to cover best before type shelf-life, FSAI are focused fully on safety rather than quality.

Hi Des,

You have reminded me of another criticism of this revision. :smile:

From memory, 1st version had a quite neat shelf-life decision tree based probably on L.mono as can still be found in some other chilled foods publications. For some reason this tree has been removed. Grrr.

A deeper analytical approach than here can be found in the (much) older Chilled Foods book by Brown (Campden IIRC) who gives formulae for calculating shelf lives based on pathogens like L.mono, etc. Gives you an idea of the degree of subjectivity involved.

Nonetheless this issue is undoubtedly modern, very well produced, and accessible. The whole GN series is a very laudable project.

That decision tree was very useful alright - I don't know why it's gone from the current version.

I have a soft copy of version 1 if anyone needs me to upload it.

If you can upload just the decision tree that would be great!

That decision tree was very useful alright - I don't know why it's gone from the current version.

I have a soft copy of version 1 if anyone needs me to upload it.

If you can upload just the decision tree that would be great!

addendum

see the attachment this post, Pg5 -

http://www.ifsqn.com...mon/#entry78430

Fantastic!  Thank you sir!

addendum

 

see the attachment this post, Pg5 -

http://www.ifsqn.com...mon/#entry78430

Welcome !