Unwrapped food product display shelf life assessment

Abstract

Chilled foods have been available since the 1960s. However, over the past 20 years, the market has been driven by the huge social, economic and demographic changes that have influenced our eating habits. This has contributed to making the chilled food production and retail in the UK one of the world’s fastest-growing food sectors with food retail stores, restaurants and cafeterias. One very important fixture in these commercial establishments is the display cabinet where food is chilled and displayed. Many guidelines & regulations exist regarding displaying of food in cabinets. Amongst these are ones that relate to food deterioration such as the Food Hygiene Regulations 1995 (updated in January 2006), which related specifically to the retail sale and distribution of chilled foods. The most important point of these regulations was a requirement for sensitive foodstuffs to be maintaining at 8°C or below (Part II). These regulations were focused on reducing the risk of bacterial spoilage associated with chilled foods. The Regulations did not engage in the deterioration problems associated with moisture transfer and evaporating loss of unwrapped chilled foods displayed in delicatessen cabinets. This paper present result from theoretical and experimental investigation into the display shelf life in terms of bacterial spoilage and weight loss for some unwrapped sandwiches components including vegetables, tuna, cheese and beef. The output of this work showed that the display shelf life in terms of weight loss is shorter compared to the shelf life in terms of bacterial spoilage and it’s related to food drying rate. Surface drying, increases the weight loss and leads to colour changes that are undesirable and results in shorter display shelf life. Weight loss was affected by air relative humidity, velocity and temperature. Therefore, more consideration should be given to environmental boundary conditions, which have direct impact on the quality and shelf life of unwrapped product.