Shelf life study
A “Use by date”
“Best before date” or “expiry date” or shelf life is compulsorily displayed on
the label of every packaged food product as per FOOD SAFETY AND STANDARDS
(LABELLING AND DISPLAY) REGULATIONS, 2020 by the manufacturer or packer.
This date signifies the end of the period under any stated storage conditions
during which the food product shall remain fully marketable and shall retain
any specific qualities for which tacit or express claims have been made, and
beyond that date, the food may still be perfectly safe to consume, though, its
quality may have diminished.
“Chennai Mettex
Lab” is involved in the study of the “shelf life” of food products. A shelf
life study is used to determine how long a food product can reasonably be
expected to be kept & consumed by the consumer by analyzing the changes in
quality in two ways.
Real-time shelf-life
study
A real-time
shelf-life study involves storing the product under
ambient/refrigerated/deep-freeze conditions for a period of time longer than
the expected shelf life and checking the product at regular intervals to see
when it begins to spoil. This study applies to food products with a short
shelf life of up to 3 months refrigerated products or deep-freezed products.
Accelerated shelf-life study
Accelerated
shelf-life study involves accelerated storage to determine the shelf life of
long shelf life food products and checking the product at regular intervals to
see when it begins to spoil. A brief outline of these is given later.
The suitable tests
are being selected for determining the safety and quality of the product during
the shelf-life period such as sensory evaluation, and physical, chemical &
microbiological test parameters.