Packed for life
for life Packaging a product for increasing its longevity might not
be a difficult task, if the complexities involved are cleverly
understood, explains Gautam K Bhattacharya
Shelf life, as it is rightly understood, is
the time available for a packaged
product to remain suitable for
consumption. It begins from the time of
production / packaging till the date the
product remains fit for human intake.
Shelf life plays a crucial role in marketing,
as it needs to be declared on the product
package. Besides this, the entire production
and distribution system work towards offering
optimisation of residual shelf life, right from
the time the processed food product is made
available on the store shelf. This is for a very
simple reason that better the residual shelf
life, greater are its chances of getting sold.
Also, determination of shelf life is crucial,
since beyond a limit, the food begins to lose
its qualities and nourishment values, creates
pathogens and then reaches at a stage, where
it is no longer edible.
Shelf life also refers to the number of days
the packaging needs to remain effective in
providing protection. Further, it could also be
used in determining the price of the packed
product. Then again, if an accurate shelf life
of a product is determined in advance, the
task of choosing the most optimum and costeffective
package becomes quite easy.
However, shelf life of a product need not
always be derived through storage trials. In
fact, there are several prediction techniques
that could be used for this purpose. But first,
let us look at the below-mentioned factors
that one needs to consider while calculating
shelf life of a product:
• The quality of the packed food and the
minimum acceptable quality till consumption
• The mechanism of food deterioration and
salient agents responsible for controlling the
rate of deterioration
• The packaging material chosen along with
the shape and size of the pack
• Basic properties of the packaging material
used for providing protection against agents
which are likely to change or damage the food
product
• The distribution chain and the possible
hazards (physical, chemical, biological) that
the product would go through
• The conversion techniques used on the
packaging materials and their impact on the
protection properties.
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