ABSTRACT
It is dif˜cult to produce a common method for the prediction of the shelf life of frozen foods. Fresh or chilled foods normally have a single dominant deterioration mechanism (e.g., microbial spoilage). Consequently, it is relatively easy to model the temperature changes in the product and to superimpose microbial growth and decay models on these temperatures, the integration of which over time will result in a good approximation of when the microbial load will exceed a safe limit and so de˜ne the safe shelf life [1]. Lest one thinks that the foregoing sentence solves the problem for fresh and chilled products, let me quickly add that a de˜ciency in kinetic data on microbial growth and decay for spoilage organisms at the temperatures involved and their interactions with food composition make this a far from easy task.
