How is the shelf-life date determined e.g. meat products?

Hi Evryone,

I have a question how is the shelf-life date determined e.g. meat products? We have thermal treatments, for example 8 and 9 April for the same lot? From what date should I calculate 14 days of durability?

Regards

You must have a accreditation lab perform shelf life testing. You cannot just pick a number randomly. April 8 and 9 treatment of same lot should NOT have the same shelf as the 9th has had 1 full day of decomposition prior to treatment/packaging

Thanks for the quick response.

And if the thermal treatment is at the turn of April 8/9 at midnight,what then?  Also such a situation can not be, I guess.

then the date needs to automatically roll over to the next date stamp

There is some leniency on changing the date after midnight, at least with USDA. We used to run product until 3 AM. Because it was part of the same production run, they allowed us to keep the production date the same before and after midnight. However, we also did runs of product that lasted longer than one continuous day (extended run), in this case we did have to switch dates at the midnight timestamp. As Scampi mentioned, shelf life evaluation must be conducted at an accredited laboratory/facility. 

I have one more question. If the technological process consists of thermal treatment on April 8, and the product packed , for example on April 10th, is the date of production considered as April 8 and it is a zero day?

Yes, the manufacture date would be that in which is was cooked not packed. I have never heard the term "zero day" in my past experience. Can you elaborate more on this, so I am able to better understand? 

Zero day usually refers to the day of slaughter

So Monday equals day zero

Tuesday 1

Wednesday 2

Thursday 3

and so on

In all other food production, Monday would be day 1

Packed on date is only for traceability and would NOT impact shelf at all in regards to date code on the cartons.................I hope you're not seriously holding product 2 days past cook......you've automatically lost 3 days of shelf ( 1 in transit and 2 more in your facility)

I also want to add that the shelf life of your cooked product WILL BE directly affected by the handling of the raw meat post slaughter. So if you are slaughter to value added you've got complete control, if your getting in totes of whole muscle cuts, you need to put a maximum days since slaughter rule in for receiving of those products

I don't set food dates, I ask because I  heard different "news" like a zero day..

You've asked about shelf life, so you do set the food dates. 

Day zero is used in meat so that everyone is calculation days the same way. Please ensure you use a lab to determine shelf life for you.