Predicting Shelf-life of Ice Cream by Accelerated Conditions

Shelf-life is defined as the amount of time during which a food product retains its desired sensory, chemical, and physical characteristics while remaining safe for consumption. The food industry needs to rapidly obtain the necessary information for determining the shelf life of its products. Here we studied the approaches available for conducting accelerated shelf-life tests. Accelerated shelf-life testing is applied to a variety of products to rapidly estimate change in characteristics with time. The aim of this work was to use accelerated shelf-life testing to study the changes in pH, microbiology, and sensory characteristics of ice cream by the application of a kinetic approach and, based on the observations, to estimate its shelf life. As per the current law, there is no shelf life on ice cream. Our results suggest that the shelf life of an ice cream sample was 24.27 months at $-18^{\circ}C$, 2.29 months at $-6^{\circ}C$, 0.39 months at $-1^{\circ}C$, and 0.15 months at $4^{\circ}C$. Results of this study suggest that a set expiration date on ice cream might also contribute to effective management of ice cream characteristics in the retail chilled chain.