For beverage or drink product brands, it is essential to prioritize product quality in order to establish trust and satisfy consumer demands. One of the important factors in maintaining the quality of the product is its shelf life.
This is because consumers always look at the quality and safety of drink products when purchasing. In this case, you must conduct a shelf-life study and put the details on the product packaging.
What is Beverage Shelf-Life and Why is it Important?
So, what exactly is the shelf life for beverages? Essentially, it’s the period during which a drink product maintains its quality and safety under specific storage conditions before it begins to degrade. Now, is it similar to the expiration date? Not really.
Unlike an expiry date, which tells when a product should not be consumed, shelf-life is when a drink can be kept and sold without appreciable loss of its intended properties, such as taste, appearance, and nutritional value.
This information is crucial for both manufacturers and consumers. For manufacturers, rigorous testing is required to determine how long their product can maintain its quality.
Factors like ingredients used, packaging methods, and storage conditions all define the shelf-life. So, for consumers, this knowledge helps ensure that they receive drinks that meet quality standards from the moment they’re produced until they’re consumed.
What is a Beverage Shelf-Life Study?
A shelf-life study is an analytical technique used by manufacturers to assess the duration for which their product can maintain its quality under different conditions before it begins to degrade.
This process includes thorough testing to evaluate factors such as microbiology, flavour, appearance, levels of nutrients, and smell.
Unlike guessing or copying another product’s shelf life, a shelf-life study is tailored to the specific drink product. It considers the unique formulation, packaging, storage conditions, and more.
Manufacturers use this study to improve product quality, ensure consistency, and comply with regulatory standards. It helps in decide the best storage conditions and understand how different ingredients and packaging impact product stability.
What are the Factors Affecting Beverage Shelf Life
Do you know why some beverages stay fresh longer than others? Let’s explore the factors in detail below:
Intrinsic Factors
Intrinsic factors are inherent qualities within the drink product that influence its shelf life. These may include:
- Water activity
- pH level
- Moisture
- Salt
- Sugar
- Nutrition
- Oxidation potential
Extrinsic Factors
On the other hand, extrinsic factors are external conditions that can be controlled or modified to extend shelf life, such as:
- Time (storage duration)
- Temperature
- Packaging material
- MAP (Modified Atmospheric Packaging)
- Processing method
- Chemical preservatives
Processing Methods
This is one of the extrinsic factors that is often used to eliminate bacteria and prevent pathogens. The technique examples are:
- Smoking
- Curing
- Pasteurization
- UHT (ultra-high temperature)
- Fermentation
Product Formulation
The formulation of ingredients is pivotal in determining shelf life, especially for a beverage. Here are two main formulations affecting:
- Water activity
In this case, sugars and salts act as natural preservatives by binding water and inhibiting microbial growth.
- Additives (chemical preservatives)
Meanwhile, chemical additives like antioxidants and acidity regulators (e.g., citric acid) extend shelf life by preventing oxidation and microbial spoilage.
Storage and Transportation
Proper handling during storage and transportation is critical to preserving a product, including drinks.
For example, maintaining consistent temperatures during transit and storage prevents fluctuations that can accelerate spoilage. Chilled products must stay cold, while frozen products need to remain frozen to prevent microbial activity.
Packaging
To extend a product’s shelf life, proper packaging is needed. Examples of commonly used packaging that is good for drink products include sealed plastics and cans.
Read About: Shelf Life of Pharmaceuticals: Ensuring Safety and Efficacy
How to Conduct a Beverage Shelf-Life Study
So, how do companies ensure their products stay fresh and safe over time? The answer is through a shelf-life analysis.
As explained before, this study is a meticulous process that involves scientific testing to determine how long a drink product can maintain its quality under various conditions. Let’s break down the steps involved:
Check Formula and Storage Conditions
The first step is to thoroughly review the product formula and the conditions under which it will be stored and transported. This review ensures that the testing accurately reflects real-world scenarios.
Whether it’s a small-scale pilot production or a full-scale run, the samples must mimic actual production conditions to avoid errors in scaling up.
This is because factors like ingredients, packaging types, temperature exposure during storage and handling, and expected consumer use after opening affect how long the product will last.
Identify Safety and Quality Factors
After identifying the baseline with the formula and storage requirements, the next step is to identify critical factors related to safety and quality.
This includes setting standards for microbiological safety, organoleptic (sensory) properties such as taste and aroma, and nutritional content.
Regulatory requirements for labeling claims, like nutritional values that might degrade over time, also need consideration. Testing protocols must adhere to accredited methods to ensure reliability and compliance with industry standards.
Testing Methods
There are two primary methods used in drink product shelf-life studies. Both involve microbiological analysis and sensory testing to ensure that the product meets quality standards throughout its intended shelf life. Here’s the detail:
- Direct method
This involves real-time studies where the beverage is stored under typical market conditions, and its properties are monitored over specific intervals. While this method is accurate, it can take more time to complete.
- Accelerated method
To speed up the process, this method alters environmental factors like temperature and pressure to simulate the effects of ageing more quickly than usual. This method is faster but may introduce slight inaccuracies.
Analyze Results and Set Shelf Life
Then, once testing is complete, the final step is to analyze the results and decide on the shelf lifetime.
The analysis verifies that the product remains safe, maintains its quality, and meets all regulatory and consumer expectations from production to consumption and beyond the labeled expiry date.
Also, don’t forget to put the shelf life and expiry date on your beverage’s packaging to ensure consumers can see the information. This means you need a proper printing machine. See a complete list of thermal inkjet printers here.
References
https://www.foodresearchlab.com/blog/how-much-can-you-increase-shelf-life-of-products/
https://eng.alimentossas.com/blog/food-industry/shelf-life
https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/understanding-factors-affecting-shelf-life/#factors
