Column Ramon Sterk: Shelf life studies

After months of refining the recipe, you finally have it in your hands: the perfect product for the consumer. Now all that’s left is to determine a best-before or use-by date for the label, and it’s ready for the market! So you send the product to the laboratory and ask them to run it through their super-duper shelf-life analyzer. Ten minutes later, the best-before or use-by date should be clear. Right?

Unfortunately, no. That’s not how it works. Determining the shelf life of a product is a complex process. A process that may seem confusing or even unnecessary at times. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is one of the most important links in food safety and quality! It also requires extensive knowledge of analyses, products, and legislation. The right procedure guarantees that we, as consumers, can enjoy food that is not only tasty, but above all safe. That is why the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) keeps a close watch on it.

The NVWA summarizes the Dutch Commodities Act, the General Food Law Regulation (EC No. 178/2002), and the microbiological criteria for foodstuffs (EC No. 2073/2005) fairly clearly in its Food Microbiology Handbook. Still, it remains complicated. SMEs continue to run into terms and obstacles they simply aren’t familiar with. They are faced with questions such as: “Which physicochemical properties are relevant? Which category does my product fall under? Which verification tests do I need to perform?”

Nutrilab understands the laws and regulations and has extensive experience in carrying out tests that help determine the shelf life of a product. We do this, among other things, through FSSP modeling after determining a number of physicochemical properties (pH, aW, organic acids), which then allows us to establish the right approach.

Complying with legal obligations is essential. There is no doubt about that. But the most important thing is — and always will be — bringing safe and reliable food products to market for consumers. No question about it.

Ramon Sterk
Team Lead Microbiology and Allergens