Use of time-temperature integrators and predictive modelling for shelf life control of chilled fish under dynamic storage conditions

A systematic approach for fish shelf life modelling and Time Temperature In tegrator (TTI) selection in order to plan and apply an effective quality mo nitoring scheme for the fish chill chain was developed. The temperature beh aviour of the natural microflora of the Mediterranean fish boque (Boops boo ps) was studied and growth of the specific spoilage bacteria Pseudomonas sp p. and Shewanella putrefaciens was modelled and correlated to organoleptic shelf life. Arrhenius and square root functions a ere used to model tempera ture dependence of maximum growth rates. Bacterial growth and shelf life mo dels were validated under dynamic storage conditions with independent varia ble temperature experiments. The response of several TTIs from similar stor age experiments was also modelled. The reliability: of the TTI monitoring w as cumulatively expressed by the error in the TTI derived effective tempera ture (T-eff) for different variable temperature distributions. T-eff was di rectly translated to shelf life of the fish. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science BN. All:rights reserved.