What is food shelf-life and how is it defined? Besides maintaining a proper cold chain, what other factors contribute to proper storage?
Today’s consumers are very careful and evaluate every detail before choosing what to buy, especially when it comes to food products.
As a result, companies must pay more attention to shelf-life and food preservation, considering them crucial factors in ensuring maximum safety while complying with stringent compliance on the issue.
Let’s take a look, then, at what this is all about and how the SIAD Group stands by industry operators with cutting-edge and efficient solutions that improve food shelf-life through the use of gases.
What is food shelf-life: definition, meaning and insights
The literary translation of shelf-life is “life on the shelf,” and its meaning can be identified as the period between the production of food and its expiration date.
More technically, the definition of shelf-life can be found in the UNI 10534-2005 standard and indicates “that period of time corresponding, under certain storage conditions, of a tolerable decrease in the organoleptic, chemical, physical, microbiological and structural qualities of the food.”
Therefore, establishing the shelf-life of food products means highlighting the cut-off date by which they can be safely consumed because they do not contain dangerous microorganisms and have not undergone changes in taste, odor and color, or the loss of nutrients and vitamins. Storing them in the best and safest way also has a significant impact in the name of sustainability: optimizing distribution, avoiding early withdrawals from the shelf, and and making it easier to use the product safely reduces waste.
Primary shelf-life and secondary shelf-life
To be more precise, it is necessary to distinguish between primary shelf-life and secondary shelf-life (or residual shelf-life). The first refers to the period from production to the time the food is opened; the second refers to the preservation of organoleptic properties after the package is opened.
What factors affect product shelf-life
There are several factors that need to be monitored and that can generate negative changes in food properties, here are the main ones:
- Exposure to light
- Temperature changes
- Oxidative actions
- Microbiological contamination
Determination (or validation) of shelf-life of food products: here’s how it’s calculated
Current regulations do not stipulate precisely how the shelf-life of food products is to be determined, but place the responsibility for identifying it on producers.
Hence the need to turn to specialized laboratories that, in order to carry out the shelf-life calculation (shelf-life validation), they are going to put in place a series of analyses over a given period of time and under certain storage conditions, based on the drivers of acceptability, specific parameters for each type of food, from taste to smell to nutritional properties, especially considering sanitary safety.
Gases and shelf-life: what role do gases play in food preservation
But, then, how to extend the shelf-life of foods? Gases play an importantrole in food preservation and in extending the shelf-life of food.
This means that their use fits in as a supportive technological operation that, together with other interventions (cold chain maintenance, proper packaging, protection from light and oxidation…), protects the product from early deterioration so that it does not lose organoleptic characteristics and nutritional values.
Using food gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and argon, individually or mixed together, it is possible to create packaging in protective or modified atmospheres (MAP, Modified Atmosphere Packaging) which slows down food spoilage, optimizing its preservation and producing benefits for the entire food chain, from producer to consumer.
Examples are diverse, from the use of the nitrogen to eliminate the oxygen from the packages of dehydrated and dried products or baked goods, through the use of the argon in the bottling of the fine wines, to the carbon dioxide, which retards bacterial or fungal growth in the preservation of meat, fish and fresh pasta. Relative to oxygen onormally it is eliminated and combated, but in some cases it must be maintained in specific percentages. For example, in the case of fish (such as salmon,tuna) or red meat (such as beef and pork), it must be kept at high percentages to avoid browning.
SIAD’s solutions for extending food shelf-life
The SIAD Group has a special focus on the food industry, one of the cornerstones of the Italian economy, helping to ensure that perfect products that stimulate taste, sight and smell arrive on tables around the world.
With decades of experience in the field, we have developed high quality products, technologies and application solutions, aiming to partner with industry players in the pursuit of food safety.
Foodline, the innovative line to increase shelf-life
In this direction, we designed Foodline, an innovative line of food packaging products designed to optimize the life of food.
Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and argon, or a mixture of them, provide a number of benefits to Food & Beverage producers, for example:
- Increased production planning capacity and more efficient processes
- Reducing production costs
- Increased distribution capacity
- Longer shelf life of food organoleptic qualities
- Reduction of production waste
- Higher levels of food safety
- Food waste reduction and eco-sustainability
Examples are the experiences of companies that have already tested it.
But the SIAD Group does not limit itself to the supply of gases and blends, it goes further. We offer all related services: from design to installation to monitoring, all created ad hoc on the specific need of the industry and the manufacturer.
Aroma+, the food packaging system that enhances scents
In addition to food safety, an important part of the consumer experience is the sensory experience.
Some packaged perishables, upon opening the packaging, may give off unpleasant odors that do not correspond to the excellence of the product, not because of improper storage or from the poor quality of the food, but because of the physiological and natural presence of volatile organic compounds.
In response to this need, Aroma+, an innovative food packaging system was born, in modified atmosphere and flavored, capable of enhancing the characteristics of perishable packaged goods. Through a mixture of gases and aromas, they allow the consumer to olfactively perceive the best characteristics of the packaged product.
