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Performances of time–temperature indicators in the study of temperature exposure of packaged fresh foods
Author(s) -
Riva Marco,
Piergiovanni Luciano,
Schiraldi Alberto
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
packaging technology and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1099-1522
pISSN - 0894-3214
DOI - 10.1002/pts.521
Subject(s) - worksheet , cold chain , reliability (semiconductor) , environmental science , computer science , product (mathematics) , reliability engineering , process engineering , statistics , mathematics , engineering , mechanical engineering , power (physics) , physics , mathematics education , quantum mechanics , geometry
The diffusion of time–temperature indicators (TTIs), attached as labels onto the packages of perishable food and non‐food products (intelligent packaging), is growing more and more. Aside from checking product shelf‐life, TTI devices can be used to monitor the distribution chain in real conditions. In this respect, the performances of some very common TTIs (A 12 Fresh Check, Lifelines Technologies) were extensively investigated in this work. The aim was to establish a procedure for an accurate, objective and reproducible estimate of the darkening progress of the sensitive area of the indicators and to discover a reliable data treatment to estimate the ‘effective temperature’, T eff , namely a fictitious average temperature that can replace the overall temperature fluctuations experienced by a packaged fresh food. The image analysis approach was found very useful for an accurate and sensitive definition of the information provided by the indicators, leading to the evidence of a very slow darkening of the sensitive region, even at −22°C. The kinetic parameterization of TTI responses was implemented in an EXCEL worksheet so as to directly evaluate T eff on the basis of a set of label brightness values acquired by image analysis. Comparing the calculated ‘effective temperature’ with the average temperature recorded with conventional devices, the reliability of the TTI tags and the accuracy of this procedure was demonstrated. Taking into account the low cost of the TTI tags, their wide usage can be suggested to monitor the various steps of the real distribution chain of a given product, namely, transport, bench and home storage. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.