How to Increase the Shelf Life of Food Products

Among the questions food manufacturers and suppliers try to answer, how to increase the shelf life of food products might be at the top of the list. All brands are focused on making their products last longer on shelves, making the logistics of shipping, storing, and selling easier. Besides, there’s a lot at stake—you don’t create brand recall or engage consumers with products that expire at the drop of a hat.

There is an environmental impact to consider, too. While it’s impossible to accurately measure how much food is wasted or lost across the value chain due to the complexity involved and the lack of reliable data, what approximations or guesses we have point to significant numbers. One estimate from the World Wildlife Fund says about 40%  of the world’s food goes uneaten. This means vast resources like trillions of gallons of water and huge land areas are wasted, directly affecting manufacturers’ bottom lines.

Understanding and measuring the shelf life of food will be critical for manufacturers to last in the market and gain trust. Thankfully, recent advancements have made extending shelf life more efficient. We’ll explore these methods, starting with the basics of shelf life and what the more nuanced benefits of extending it are.

Source: UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021

Understanding and Measuring the Shelf Life of Food

Even if tracking each individual can of discarded baked beans is impossible, there’s obviously considerable wastage from products that spoil readily or due to unobservant consumers. According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report 2024, the world wasted an estimated 1.05 billion tonnes of food in the retail, food service, and household sectors combined in 2022. Manufacturers need to be wary of where gaps exist across the value chain, especially around shelf life and storage, and address them to cut losses and operate in a more environmentally mindful manner.

Before looking at what needs to be done, let’s pick apart what shelf life actually is. Broadly speaking, it is the period within which a food item is desirable and fit for consumption. A product’s attributes, like texture, nutritional value, and taste, hold firm during this time under favourable storage conditions. 

Causes of Reduced Shelf Life

Factors affecting the shelf life of food could include several physical and chemical changes, from as simple as mechanical damage while handling to the more intricate effects of ambient conditions on the packaging itself. Microbial activity and enzymatic reactions are prominent elements that disrupt shelf life. Temperature fluctuations are also to blame for reduced shelf life, whether exposure to high temperatures or refrigeration failure at the warehouse or the retail level.

A quick guide to measuring shelf life could involve chemical analyses or something as straightforward as sensory evaluations by trained personnel. Diverting resources to increase shelf life needn’t be an expensive affair. The advantages are vast and can give manufacturers plenty to rejoice about. This brings us to our next section.

Why Extending Shelf Life Helps

Better quality control, for one. Putting out food that doesn’t spoil quickly leads to lower inventory costs and fewer recalls, not to mention the prices involved with waste disposal. Additionally, extended shelf life can allow for longer transportation distances, reduced shipping frequency, and fewer shipments rejected, which could severely impair a company’s market mobility and cause bottlenecks.

Proven Ways to Increase Shelf Life

The big question again is how to increase the shelf life of food products. We’ve outlined some trusted methods that can accelerate business goals, aid sustainability objectives, and reduce operating costs—all while endearing brands and companies to contemporary consumers. These include methods at different levels, from production to packing to storing. 

The easiest rule to follow is to ensure that produce, post-harvest, is handled with the utmost care. Avoid contamination, dirty storage conditions, and rough handling—and that’s half the job done. 

1. Packaging Innovations

Getting the packaging right in most cases is the easiest way of extending the shelf life of products like fruits, vegetables, and meats, offering a higher chance of maintaining freshness. Vacuum sealing is pretty common and helps avoid aerobic bacteria and mould. This packaging also ensures that food is less susceptible to freezer burn, making it a versatile, reliable option. Elsewhere, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is the manipulation of the internal conditions of packaging, typically by substituting air with a mixture of gases and allowing it to equilibrate on its own. This practice is especially great for pre-packaged fish products! Edible packaging (plants and seaweed micro membranes and casein-based packages) and smart packaging are innovations that brands are embracing. The former can help avoid potential adverse reactions between products and packaging or the packaging and the environment. The latter can use technologies like embedded sensors, near-field communications, and QR codes to build data-driven operations in the supply chain to calibrate shelf life and reduce printing/packaging.

2. Humidity Tracking

An accepted practice is to keep a tab on the humidity and temperature of products at all times, from processing to packing. Having a monitoring system that offers real-time data is a strong move and ensures the food that reaches consumers isn’t a bunch of soggy, spoilt produce full of micro-organisms activity. Using suitable sensors and data logging to record temperature and humidity levels continuously gives manufacturers control over customised needs. And identifying critical areas in the supply chain and prioritising them, such as warehouses and transportation, will build resilience within and cut down on economic losses. If this seems like too much work, don’t worry. With automated systems emerging, it’s possible to set up systems that can trigger alerts without manual intervention. With technology as connected as it is today, notifications can be delivered immediately for prompt response.

3. Product Irradiation 

It’s elementary—exposing food to ionising radiation reduces or eliminates microorganisms. Gamma rays from cobalt 60 and caesium 137, x-rays, and electron beams are your go-to options here. While seemingly nightmarish on paper, the technique is safe and does not turn the food radioactive or make potatoes sprout arms. Irradiation can destroy insects in fruits/vegetables, delay fruit ripening, and provide preservative properties for products like spices, poultry, shellfish, and ground beef. Irradiation might not neutralise microorganism-produced toxins such as the one that causes botulism—but it is effective against the bacteria itself. And despite the slight effect it has on flavour, irradiation could be the solution for manufacturers trying to keep their products on shelves for just that bit longer.

4. Advanced Food Processing Techniques

While pasteurisation and sterilisation will remain the simplest and safest ways of processing foods, academic research and small-scale testing are offering fascinating insights into techniques that could potentially meet consumers’ evolving expectations. As products with specific sensory and nutritional characteristics grow in appeal, techniques like cold plasma, ultrasound, and pulsed electric field (PEF) processing could have more applications and become more widespread. PEF, for instance, can inactivate microorganisms by applying a series of short, high-voltage pulses that rupture their cell membranes. PEF pretreatment is shown to facilitate the release of nutrients from some foods while promoting liquid diffusion inside them and enhancing quality. Some of these methods have been noted for possibly increasing production efficiency and minimising the impact on the environment.

5. Smart Stickers

A relatively new and niche idea, it essentially involves placing a specially treated sticker within a packaging or on a product directly! These stickers are triggered (by humidity inside the packaged product, for example) to release ingredients that can reduce weight loss or combat ethylene-triggered post-harvest deterioration in fruits and vegetables. Growers, shippers, and retailers all stand to benefit from this technology due to its simple application and the profitability on offer. Smart stickers could be the answer in the coming days for manufacturers seeking additional shelf life for fresh produce. And you needn’t look far into the future for these functional stickers. Innovators are scaling up their discoveries while some companies have already applied for regulatory clearance in different markets! 

Invest Where it Matters

Throwing your weight behind innovation and research into increasing the shelf life of products is the bare minimum in this day and age. There are enough actionable strategies and techniques available for practically every need, whether to stop microbial activity, restrict moisture levels, or sterilise food for long-term consumption. The industry is already making progress at the intersection of food safety and technology. New packaging types, smart stickers, recent food processing techniques, and other methods should answer manufacturers’ worries over how to increase the shelf life of food products. 

It’s recommended that these are implemented so that waste is reduced and food safety is improved. And there’s the slight issue of our planet’s future being in the balance. Delivering fresh products fit for consumption is a pretty big deal, after all, so invest wisely and make the right calls.

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