MATHEMATICAL-MODELS TO EVALUATE TEMPERATURE ABUSE EFFECTS DURING DISTRIBUTION OF REFRIGERATED SOLID FOODS

The increasing consumption of refrigerated foods in the USA opens new opportunities for food processors to satisfy consumer demands for minimally processed foods. Previous work has shown the need to reduce the frequency of temperature abuse. The development of a personal computer-based tool to evaluate the consequences of temperature abuse shows that, even when the fraction of the total storage time at an undesirable room temperature is rather small (2-3%), the reduction in shelf-life can be highly significant (20-30%). The effect of package size and heat transfer properties was also significant. These types of evaluations, needed to help reduce product losses, are expensive and time consuming without the help of the tool here presented.