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Analysis of Food Shelf Life

Course developers

Prior knowledge

Ķīmi5006, Chemistry of Natural Compounds

PārZ5021, Food Legislation

PārZ5036, Food Design

PārZ6001, Application of Food Additives

Course abstract

The study course “The analysis of food shelf-life” introduce and give possibility to get knowledge about different kind of factors, which influence food spoilage processes; determination of expiry date of food; it calculation and prognoses. The main problems will be discussed in the course: the main ways of food spoilage; control of moisture content in food; the thermostability of food; the control of the physiology of colour and hardness; the methods of determination of food spoilage level (identification, innovations, the analyses of results).

Learning outcomes and their assessment

After the study course, students will have:
• in-depth knowledge and understanding of the processes that take place in food products during storage, determining the shelf life of food and the possibilities of extending it (workshop, laboratory work, scientific article, control work);
• skills – determine the types and factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) of spoilage of a specific food product, varying with storage conditions, product recipe, technology, as well as working with microorganism development modelling programs, develop a schedule for determining the expiration date of a specific product (laboratory works, scientific article);

• competence – using theoretical knowledge and acquired skills to determine the expiration date of a specific food product, defining the main indicators that should be controlled in the product, determining the frequency of control and experimental conditions, if necessary, as an alternative, using an accelerated method of determining the expiration date; offering possible solutions for extending the shelf life (laboratory works, scientific article).

Course Content(Calendar)

In full-time face-to-face studies:
1. Legislation in force in the EU and Latvia, which regulates the expiration date, quality, labelling rules of food products, health claims, their analysis and critical evaluation, analysis of labelling on the market, good and bad examples. Food product safety criteria, the need and importance of their determination. Allergens, the need and importance of their indication. Expiry date: minimum and final, their determination mechanism and main differences. The main factors affecting the quality of food products. Concept, regulation and importance of moisture content, water activity, pH, oxidation-reduction potential in ensuring product shelf life. (L. 3h)
2. Effect of temperature, relative air humidity, light, packaging material and environment on the quality and shelf life of food products, discussion, examples of the effect of these factors on product quality during storage. Mechanisms of spoilage of food products, regularities, examples. Microbiological spoilage of various food products. Maillard reaction. Lipid oxidation. Self-oxidation. Lipid oxidation factors. Methods for evaluating the intensity of lipid oxidation in food products. Control and prediction of oxidation processes. Enzymatic oxidation of lipids. Lipolytic enzymes, lipids and food spoilage. Lipolysis of milk, meat and fish products. Lipolysis of cereals and vegetables. Physical deterioration, characteristics, mechanisms, affect the shelf life of the food product. Food storage time testing methods, including accelerated expiration date determination methods. Basic principles. Kinetic modelling. Determining the storage time of food products, ensuring safety, predicting the storage time. (L. 3h)
3. Determining the storage time of food products based on the current legislation and/or internal company standards. Key factors, product quality testing indicators, frequency and repeatability of their determination, description and justification of applied methods. Inversion of the obtained results, comparison, discussion on the interpretation of the obtained results. Creation of an experimental work plan. (W. 3h)
4. Development of the new food product, determination of quality parameters, packaging, placing for storage using the accelerated expiration date method and storing the food product in traditional conditions. (L.W. 3h)
5. Testing the quality parameters of the developed food product during storage. Learning testing methods, in adaptation. (L.W. 3h)
6. Testing the quality parameters of the developed food product during storage. Learning testing methods, in adaptation. (L.W. 3h)
7. Testing the quality parameters of the developed food product during storage. Learning testing methods, in adaptation. (L.W. 3h)

8. Test (W. 1h). Presentation of the results obtained as part of the experimental work, reasoned discussion about the problem situation and possible solutions (W. 2h)

Requirements for awarding credit points

Passing with a mark.
In order to be able to pass the accumulative test, the student must:
• must participate in laboratory works (100%), workshops (100%) and lectures (70%);
• must write (the rating must be at least "almost mediocre") a test (includes both test and open questions);

• the experimental work (performed within the framework of laboratory work) should be developed and publicly defended, establishing the shelf life of the developed food product.

Description of the organization and tasks of students’ independent work

The student must prepare a draft of the scientific article in accordance with the set requirements, which must be submitted in writing to the teaching staff of the study course before the defence.
The maximum volume of the summary of the results of the experimental work (article) is 5 pages of A4 format. The summary should include the following points:
1. Summary. One paragraph of 230-250 words should be concise and concise.
2. For the purpose of the work, as well as the summarized results and conclusions obtained in the work.
3. Keywords. No more than five.
4. Introduction. The purpose, scope and novelty of the research and its relationship with other research available in the scientific literature in the same field are outlined.
5. Materials and methods. Reflects in detail the materials used in the experiments, provides the scheme of the experiments, the methods to be used for determining the quality parameters.
6. Results and discussion. The results obtained in the experiments should be presented in the form of text, tables or figures. Data analysis should be performed, reflecting its reliability. Interpretation and extended analysis of the results should be provided, as well as a comparison of the obtained data with similar published ones.
7. Conclusions. Based on the obtained results and discussions.

8. List of references.

Criteria for Evaluating Learning Outcomes

The evaluation of the accumulative grade consists of the evaluation of the written test, publicly defended presentation and written work (scientific publication), calculating the average arithmetic value. A student can get a passing grade for the written test if at least 60% of the questions are answered correctly. The presentation and the written work are evaluated according to the established evaluation procedure

Compulsory reading

1. Nicoli, M.C. (Ed.). (2012). Shelf Life Assessment of Food (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi-org.ezproxy.llu.lv/10.1201/b11871
2. Dar, B.N., Shah, M.A., & Mir, S.A. (Eds.). (2022). Shelf Life and Food Safety (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi-org.ezproxy.llu.lv/10.1201/9781003091677

3. Shen, C. Zhang, Y. (2023) Food Microbiology Laboratory for the Food Science Student : a practical approach / Second edition. Cham : Springer International Publishing, [2023] xviii, 160 lpp. ISBN 9783031261961

Further reading

Ćirković Veličković, T., Gavrović-Jankulović, M. (2014) Food allergens: biochemistry and molecular nutrition / New York : Springer, [2014] xiii, 208 lpp. Food microbiology and food safety . ISBN 9781493908400

Periodicals and other sources

www.likumi.lv
https://europa.eu/european-union/eu-law/legal-acts_en
http://pmp.arserrc.gov/PMPOnline.aspx
http://sssp.dtuaqua.dk/Download.aspx

Notes

Compulsory study course for students of the academic master's study program "Food Science".