Manjunath B.M / Supraja Nookala
Like many long-life food products, shelf-life determination and open date mar-king of Mathur Peda is an essential requirement for ensuring quality products to the consumers. It is, however, not an easy exercise in India where ambient temperature extremes vary from sub-zero to above 45°C over a year. Furthermore, the storage temperature conditions are not uniform at any time in different places. The product from one batch may thus have different shelf-life at two different marketing locations. Different kinetic approaches to food quality modeling and various changes responsible for deterioration of Mathur peda quality have been reviewed. The literature indicated that mathematical models based on kinetic parameters closely predicted the deterioration in quality of long-life foods. Use of kinetic data in studies involving time-temperature integrators and computer simulation also successfully monitored changes in food quality. The literature further revealed that deteriorative changes in Mathur Peda were mostly storage temperature dependent and hence kinetic principles may be useful in predicting shelf-life of Mathur Peda.
