Food cold chain management and optimization

Reliable information on the cold chain conditions, the main shelf life determining postprocessing parameter, is an essential prerequisite for effective shelf life management of food products. Application of an optimized quality and safety assurance system for the distribution of chilled and frozen products requires continuous monitoring and control of storage conditions. FRISBEE is a Food Refrigeration Innovation for Cold Chain European project. Within FRISBEE a user friendly web-based cold chain database (http://frisbee-wp2.chemeng.ntua.gr/coldchaindb/) is being built. At all stages of the cold chain, the needs of consumer and European industry were considered, gaining a greater insight into deviations between real cold chain data and targeted specifications. Systematic data collection and processing allowed identification and evaluation of the weak links of the cold chain of chilled and frozen products. Data from all stages (production to consumption) of the cold chain were collected from researchers, industry, distributors, retailers and consumers. The developed FRISBEE cold chain database web based platform linked to appropriate shelf-life predicting tools offers the potential to effectively manage and improve cold chain weak links using appropriate shelf-life decision systems leading to an optimized handling. Using the response of Time-Temperature Integrators (TTI), inexpensive, smart labels that show an easily measurable, time-temperature dependent change reflecting the temperature history of the food product, the integral effect of temperature can be monitored, and quantitatively translated to food safety and quality, from production to the point of consumption. SLDS (Shelf Life Decision System) and SMAS (Safety Monitoring and Assurance System) are TTI chill chain management systems that lead to an optimized handling of products in terms of quality and safety risk.