Modeling of quality deterioration during food processing and storage

Abstract

Increasing consumer awareness and mandatory government requirements have sparked a growing interest in quantitative analyses of the deterioration of food quality during processing and storage. Computer-simulated models have helped improve analytical methods for studying food deterioration. The analytical approach for calculating and predicting deterioration includes several functional relationships: temperature, concentration of reactants, water activity and moisture content, oxygen, and mixed-models effects. Both steady-state and dynamic models include the following: problem definition, theory application, data selection, algorithm description, and data verification. Model choice and parameter estimation should be made for each experiment. The kinetic approach to predicting quality loss falls into the following categories: nutrient or quality factor retention for a specific process, shelf life limited by moisture removal, and shelf life affected by packaging materials. Effective accelerated tests have yet to be devised, although researchers are working in this field