Storage food deterioration

The chemical nature of food components is of crucial importance for all aspects of food quality. It decides on the nutritional value of the product, its sensory attractiveness, the development of desirable or deteriorative changes due to interactions with other constituents and to processing, and the susceptibility and resistance to spoilage during storage. Food components that contain reactive groups, many of them essential for the quality of the products, are generally labile and... 

Saguy, I., and Karel, M. (1980). Modeling of quality deterioration during food processing and storage. Food Technol. 34(2), 79. 

Lipid peroxidation is the primary mechanism by which food deteriorates upon storage in the presence of oxygen. This process of oxidation can be initiated enzymatically, by metal ion catalysis, or by photochemical processes, to name a few. Free radicals including peroxyl, alkoxyl, and hydroxyl have been implicated in the mechanism of lipid peroxidation. The changes in the quality of processed foods are manifested by... 

Storage at low temperature in the dark. The autoxidation rate is thereby decreased substantially. However, in fruits and vegetables which contain the lipoxygenase enzyme, these precautions are not applicable. Food deterioration is prevented only after in activation of the enzyme by a blanching process (cf. 2.6.4). 

During storage, natural pigments often deteriorate with time because of exposure to light, heat, air, and moisture or because of interaction of the components of the food with each other or with the packaging material. The color of maraschino cherries, for example, fares so poorly with storage that they are routinely bleached then artificially colored. 

Commercial sterilisation is a more severe process than pasteurisation as the temperature is higher (70-90°C). The process is used to protect food during long-term storage. The oxygen residue should be minimised before heating to reduce deterioration of antioxidants or, in some cases, antioxidants... 

Abers, J.E. and Wrolstad, R.E., Causative factors of color deterioration in strawberry preserves during processing and storage, J. Food ScL, 44, 75, 1979. 

Cloughley, J. B., Storage deterioration in Central African tea Changes in chemcial composition, sensory characteristics and price evaluation. J. Sci. Food Agri., 32 1213, 1981. 

Animal feed and bedding should be stored off the floor to facilitate cleaning. Food storage areas and areas used to store other perishable supphes should be temperature-controlled to protect against deterioration of the stored materials. 

Postirradiation reactions are well known in photo and radiation chemistry. Some of the reactions which occur in polymers are of interest here. Of note also are postirradiation-induced changes which occur in proteins. These include deamination, dephosphorylation, and gelation. That radiation-treated food may either improve or deteriorate during storage is therefore a distinct possibility. 

Water activity of food can be estimated by measuring the vapor pressure directly over it. Water activity is an extremely valuable tool for food scientists because of its usefulness in predicting food stability during storage, i.e., its tendency toward microbial, chemical, and physical deterioration. Most foods have a criti-... 

NJ Miller, AT Diplock, CA Rice-Evans. Evaluation of the total antioxidant activity as a marker of the deterioration of apple juice on storage. J Agric Food Chem 43 1794 -1801, 1995. 

Blair, J. S. Godar, E. M. Masters, J. E. Riester, D. W. Exploratory experiments to identify chemical reactions causing flavor deterioration during storage of canned orange juice. I. Incompatibility of peel oil constituents with the acid juice. Food Res., 1952, 17, 235-260. 

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