T/CNFIA 001-2017 in English

Introduction

Food deterioration includes changes in sensory quality, nutritional value, food safety, color and luster, texture, flavor, etc. Common exogenous factors causing food deterioration include temperature, relative humidity, light, oxygen and the intervention of pollutants; food composition, water activity and water content, types and content levels of microorganisms and enzymes, osmotic pressure and pH value are important endogenous factors; enzymatic reaction, non-enzymatic reaction and oxidation reaction in food also have an important influence. Food deterioration is a time-related irreversible process. The food will have reached the unacceptable deterioration endpoint when obviously unacceptable sensory changes of the food occur over time, and the physical and chemical indexes no longer meet the quality requirements. It is important to determine the food shelf life, one of the characteristic time points of food deterioration: On the one hand, it aims to ensure food safety; and on the other hand, it implicates the commitment of food processing establishments to consumers on the quality characteristics of food such as color, aroma and taste.

A procedure shall be established to determine the food shelf life and require the joint participation and multi-perspective demonstration of R&D, production, QA, purchase, sales, logistics and other departments of the establishments. In essence, the procedure for determining the food shelf life is not a means to control food safety and quality, but only an internal procedure of the establishments implemented to provide a commitment period; however, this procedure can be used to evaluate and verify the quality control level and food safety management capability of food processing establishments.

The study of food stability may lead to the law of changes of food quality characteristics over time under the influence of various environmental factors, thus providing supporting information for food formula design, production technology determination, equipment selection and raw material use, packaging mode and material selection, food storage conditions and shelf life determination, so it is the basis for food shelf life determination.

The shelf life shall be determined for food newly developed or subject to changes of the packages or storage conditions, and the food shelf life having been determined can be further demonstrated and verified.



General guideline for food shelf life

1 Scope

This standard specifies the general requirements on food shelf life and the determination of shelf life and manufacture recommended date.

This standard is applicable to food, food additives, food ingredients, and semi-finished food products.

This standard is not applicable to primary agricultural products.

2 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

2.1
food ingredients
substances used in the manufacturing or processing of food, including food additives and food used as raw materials

2.2
semi-finished food product
food and food ingredients that have not yet gone through the whole processing and manufacturing process, including food not in final sales package and food ingredients that have been mixed or treated in advance

2.3
shelf life
the period during which the food will maintain its quality under the established storage environment parameters such as temperature, humidity and light

2.4
manufacture recommended date
recommended service life of food ingredients or semi-finished food products used for manufacturing and processing

2.5
stability studies
research method to determine the food shelf life by studying the degree and law of changes in sensory, physical and chemical and microbial conditions of food under different environmental conditions over time

2.5.1
accelerated shelf life testing; ASLT
research method to determine the food shelf life, where the food deterioration reaction is artificially accelerated by quantifying the environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, air pressure and light, and the degree and law of physical, chemical and microbial changes of food are analyzed

2.5.2
long-term stability studies
research method to determine or verify the food shelf life by analyzing the degree and law of physical, chemical and microbial changes of food over time in the whole life cycle under actual or quantitatively simulated actual storage environment parameters, such as temperature, humidity and light

3 General requirements

3.1 The shelf life shall be determined by the food processing establishments, and the food business establishments shall follow the shelf life determined by the food processing establishments when supplying food. The food shall meet the requirements of corresponding food safety standards during the shelf life.

3.2 The shelf life shall be determined according to the microbial, physical and chemical characteristics of the food, packaging materials and modes, production technology, environmental conditions in the workshops, expected method of use and shelf type, storage and transport conditions and other factors. Different shelf lives may be prescribed for the same food with different packaging materials, packaging modes or storage environment parameters.

3.3 The food processing establishments shall establish a procedure for determining the food shelf life to scientifically determine the food shelf life. It is encouraged to verify the food shelf life.

3.4 The determination and verification of shelf life shall be recorded. The records should include the basic information of the food, the food ingredients or the semi-finished food product, the method for determining and verifying the shelf life, the judgment criteria, the test details, relevant data, analysis process, conclusions, etc.

3.5 The manufacture recommended date of food ingredients and semi-finished food products may be specified.

Foreword i
Introduction ii
1 Scope
2 Terms and definitions
3 General requirements
4 Determination of shelf life
5 Determination of manufacture recommended date
Annex A (Informative) Basic procedure for determining the food shelf life
Annex B (Informative) Stability studies scheme based on temperature conditions
Annex C (Informative) Stability studies scheme based on humidity and light conditions