Food product shelf-life testing

Knowledge about the product, packaging, and logistics process, supplemented by knowledge of the methodology, scope, and results of shelf-life testing, should support the manufacturer in making decisions when developing a new product. They must find a kind of optimum between product and packaging quality and the choice of distribution channels through which the product will be delivered to the consumer. Furthermore, costs and customer preferences are elements of this optimum. If this were not the case, perhaps canned goods would reign on the shelves?

A packaged product reaches the end user from the supplier through a supply chain that functions with varying degrees of efficiency. The pursuit of its continuous improvement concerns not only the efficiency of the logistics process but also the shaping and protection of product quality. Not all links in the supply chain can participate equally in the process of creating product quality. This mainly concerns the upper links of the chain, where procurement processes are concentrated – from selecting suppliers, through purchasing raw materials, deliveries, and further to production processes with their often complex specifics such as product formulation, type of technological process, selection of packaging, etc. On the other hand, quality protection concerns the entire supply chain, with the links responsible for distribution having a special task here, because while they do not create product quality in terms of its consumption values, they have a huge impact on its maintenance or deterioration. Hence the procedures for systemic quality assurance, such as maintaining a cold chain for a specific product throughout the entire supply chain, i.e., in successive warehouses, on means of transport, loading docks, and finally on store shelves. There is no need to convince anyone of the importance of this, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry, but an increasing number of consumer products also require similar actions.