Shelf life prediction of straw mushrooms (Volvariella volvacea) based food enhancer using accelerated shelf life testing method

Abstract

Food shelf life is related to food safety since consumers need to be informed an expired date of the food product. This study aims to determine shelf life of natural food enhancer based on straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) using Accelerated Shelf Life Testing (ASLT). Determination of shelf life was carried out at 30, 40, 50°C followed by descriptive sensory (colour, aroma, taste) and moisture content analysis for 28 days. Further data of those parameter over storage time were plotted into a graph to obtain a linear regression equation of zero-order and first-order. Then relationship between ln slope (k) and storage temperature 1/T (°K) was plotted in a linear regression to determine activation energy. Equation of linear regression from the lowest activation value then was used to calculate the shelf life of the product. The taste parameter on zero-order was used in shelf life determination as the critical quality because it has the smallest activation energy as 1708.39 cal/mol. The Arrhenius equation then was calculated using this value to obtain degradation constant (k). The results showed that shelf life of the straw mushroom based food enhancer were 77.58 days at 30°C, 70.85 days at 40°C and 65.07 days at 50°C.