Having done many accelerated shelf-life tests in my earlier days, there is
one mandatory guideline: you cannot correalate an accelerated test unless
you have the data from previous tests for comparison. I have heard many
"Marketing Guru's" ask, "Can't you tell me in a couple of weeks if this
brand new product will have a 12-month shelf life?" The answer is, "No!"
And remember, each new formula may need to be tested on its own.
You can accelerate the test by storing at elevated temperatures, but you
must also have data that says that the elevated temperature must not be so
high that it causes product degredation that would not occur in an extended
shelf life--such as undue carmellization, excess "cooking", etc. The best
way is to do the extended tests first at various holding temperatures, and
then have data for comparison. I'm sorry that this doesn't help, but that
is my opinion.
Paul G. Taylor
Evergreen Food Ingredients
2210 Black Lake Blvd. S.W.
Olympia, WA 98512-5604 U.S.A.
Phone: (360)754-1718; Fax: (360)705-1359
www.everfoodingr.com (under construction)
E-mail: pault@everfoodingr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Chivers" <richardchivers@btconnect.com>
To: "seafood" <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 6:27 AM
Subject: Shelf life testing
> Is there any accelerated system for testing the shelf life of ambient
stable
> bottled seafoods (squid, cuttlefish, octopus, prawn, mussels plus garlic
and
> spices) that have been marinated in vinegar, drained then bottled in oil.
> The product has a 9 month shelf life from tests carried out years ago but
> the results have been lost and recently my clients have been asked for
> evidence for a major a supermarket; they would like to avoid a 9 month
wait
> if possible.
>
> Thanks in anticipation
>
> Richard Chivers
> Seafood Audit International
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 12 2003 - 08:19:47 PDT