Before starting new products into the current market, the food sector conducts food equilibrium studies to find out about the development of the properties with time. Unlike what occurs with perishable foods (fruits, vegetables …), where degradation starts in days and, thus, its shelf life may be understood in a brief period; In non-perishable foods like snacks, biscuits or purees, this investigation is more complex, because its corrosion takes weeks or years, and flaws its own launching.
Therefore, so as to obtain forecasts of their expiration or shelf life of their foodstuffs which aren’t perishable, accelerated or ASLT research are completed, which include of subjecting the goods to various forced storage requirements to hasten their degradation. The principal factors to hasten the corrosion of meals include: temperature, humidity, and exposure to oxygen and the existence of light. But, though ASLTs help to conserve time, they simply enable predictions of useful lifetime with a certain level of error and implementing standard acceleration variables.
AINIA (Spain) has developed a computer tool which allows predicting the shelf life of non-perishable foods, in addition to comparing different lots and supporting their useful lifetime, more rapidly. This prototype of applications, according to mathematical models, has already been tested with goods from five Valencian businesses which have collaborated in this endeavor to predict the degradation of snacks, biscuits and vegetable or fruit purees. Furthermore, those businesses have engaged in the growth of the job helping the technical group of AINIA to recognize the issues and chief needs of their business in this issue.
Based on Marta Gisbert, tech of the section of fresh goods of AINIA, “the food sector should innovate in the design of goods and get it done faster than the competition, but in exactly the exact same time, it ought to guarantee quality and shelf life standards, in addition to the customer’s requirements. This brand new predictive model allows us to expect and get information about how the item will act and what expiry will require much less time. ”
For Juan Pablo Lázaro, tech of this data and telecommunications division of AINIA, “this program attempts to channel all of the info which comes in the lab data on various stabilities and physical-chemical, sensory as well as supplements elements in various states of humidity, temperature , opening and shutting the container …, to specify a collection of models that let us make conclusions concerning the limitation of the helpful life of the goods. “The program allows to create a strong, objective and speedy methodology, encouraged by fresh mathematically based technology, which assist in making decisions within the practice of creating new formulas or products and as quality management for lot empowerment.
It’s projected that over 900 businesses of snacks, biscuits and purées of the Valencian Community and approximately 12,000 nationally may profit from this new predictive model manufactured by AINIA.
This instrument is the end result of the study completed within the frame of this Acelera 4.0 endeavor, which has got the support of IVACE, through the telephone for grants led to technological centres of the Valencian R & D Community in collaboration with firms in 2017. IVACE grants are co-financed from the EU Feder Funds.