Good day!
We are going to start our shelf life study next month (Jan) for our vegetable oils (crude and refined coconut oil) and copra expeller cake (ingredient for feeds). We plan to validate 6 months and 1 year shelf life claims.
We have a chemical lab capable of doing FFA, Color, Iodine Value, Moisture Content, sensory test. We plan to conduct these quality tests every month for a duration of one year.
We do not have a micro-biology lab (for testing of e-coli, salmonella, etc ).
My question is: What is the frequency and intervals that we should send/test samples of our product to an outsource laboratory for validation and verification of the required tests? (chemical, physico-chemical), micro-bio, functional, sensory, etc).
All we are sure of is the to test the baseline(1st month), after 6 months, and after 12 months. I was told by the outsource lab that we must test seven samples (or frequency of seven sample tests in the course of one year) for a shelf life of 12 months? Can someone please validate this info?
Thanks and looking forward to your replies.