As consumers embrace everything from farm-fresh to frozen and grab-and-go to gourmet, shelf stability has become a critical consideration in modern food formulation. Similarly, developers are looking to incorporate a range of requirements into their formulations to meet changing consumer demands.
Whether it’s clean-label and organic or functional and indulgent, shoppers now expect their personalized needs to be met exactly how and when they want them. Keeping up with this constantly evolving set of consumer needs can put considerable pressure on developers, especially when it comes to shelf stability.
While addressing shelf stability in food manufacturing has never been a “one-size fits all” approach, the number of variables now impacting formulations only further complicates a product’s journey from sample to shelf.
Understanding Shelf Stability in Food Systems
When creating shelf-stable foods, there are two primary considerations: ensuring food safety and maintaining product quality throughout its shelf life. Although it may seem straightforward enough, as formulations, processes, and ingredients change, the demands and expectations for shelf stability continue to increase. This can be seen as a pain point for companies looking to shift towards organic, cleaner-label, or preservative-free formulations. Fortunately, at Ever Fresh, all-natural, clean formulated ingredient systems are our specialty, with most of our core items already optimized for such requirements.
However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t a number of issues that can arise when changing a formulation to feature new, cleaner ingredients.
Avoiding Shelf Stability Pitfalls in the Sample-to-Shelf Transition
Addressing formulation stability issues as they arise, or even before they do, is critical to our process. Our team must know exactly what they’re looking for in terms of quality control, color, and sensory aspects, as well as which factors contribute to each of these, both positively and negatively.
For example, since most of our items are heat-treated through either pasteurization or cooking, it’s not unusual for either color or flavor degradation to take place. If a product is starch-based, this could also affect its shelf life over time. Other sensory issues that impact overall consumer liking, such as viscosity or brix (a measure of the dissolved solids in a liquid), can be influenced by changes in formulation or the processing they undergo prior to reaching the consumer. Still, it isn’t only sensory issues that can impact the quality of shelf-stable foods. Factors such as the levels of water activity and moisture migration, or even ingredient selection can contribute both positively and negatively to the overall shelf life and stability of a formulation.
The degree of water activity, for example, is inversely related to the length of a product’s shelf life. The higher the level of water activity is in a formulation the greater the shelf life is reduced. However, maintaining low(er) water activity and a low(er) pH will result in the opposite effect, an increased shelf life. Controlling moisture migration, or the movement of water within an ingredient or finished item, is key to a product’s overall stability, potentially impacting texture, flavor, shelf life, and product quality overtime.. With the right combination of stabilization and ingredient systems, comprised of starches, gums, pectins, and others we can minimize moisture migration and improve stability.
Still, not every stabilizer or ingredient system performs the same in each formulation or under comparable conditions. Some starches may perform well in a formulation, but struggle to hold up under refrigeration. Marrying such ingredients with gums or pectins could help improve performance of the starch, and in turn stability of the product. Similarly, the point in production when ingredients are added can change not only their performance in the final product, but also that of other ingredients. A great example of this is acid.
Critical for achieving proper pH, among many other functions, acid needs to be incorporated at the proper time. Too early and it can burn or destroy the integrity of your starches, compromising stability. These are just a few of the reasons why we believe it’s so important to help developers build awareness of their processing parameters and gain a greater understanding of their formulation systems. Transitioning from “traditional” ingredients to newer alternatives, or the reduction and removal of these ingredients altogether, can also bring formulation challenges. These ingredients often interact with a formulation quite differently from their more standard counterparts. Anticipating and troubleshooting these potential “formulation failure points” is why we work through our process in various stages. Each with dedicated evaluation and checks and balances in place between them.
Protecting Shelf Stability: How We Help
While we primarily work with our core offerings, such as ice cream bases, fruit feeders, pie fillings, and yogurt preparations, our robust processes enable us to anticipate and quickly identify issues across various product categories. That’s why we prefer to view “formulation failure points” as opportunities for fine-tuning. When working with something outside our core, we’re even more cautious, adding additional checkpoints to our process.
For starters, we won’t proceed directly from sample to manufacturing a full 100,000 pounds of an order. We take production in steps. Starting with small samples, then moving up to a 50-pound batch, and gradually scaling up to larger quantities. For example, if we notice color fading, structural breakdowns, or flavor loss at any of the steps, we can dig deeper and make the necessary adjustments.
Along with our product development team, we have a separate quality department that evaluates these samples in parallel. This helps us ensure quality and performance every step of the way. Both teams maintain samples from each batch to use as controls, verifying consistency throughout the entire production life cycle of a product. Through our interdepartmental sensory panel, we are able to evaluate a formulation for consistent taste, texture, and performance by batch, as well as throughout its approved shelf life.
Other characteristics, like color, can be measured with tools like a colorimeter, so we know consumers are still getting a product that is as delicious to their eyes as it is to their palates. Combining these methods enables us not only to ensure quality but also to identify any deviations outside of tolerance that may require attention.
Food Safety
As previously mentioned, the other primary consideration when dealing with shelf stability in food manufacturing is food safety. This is something we at Ever Fresh take extremely seriously, and it is part of the reason why, when designing our new production facility in Warren, IN, we were sure to include aseptic capabilities.
Though not necessary for all products in our core offerings, the ability to offer aseptic packaging and production for customers, especially those of highly acidic products, can be a game-changer.
Innovations in Shelf Life Technology
Despite the agility and peace of mind our process provides our formulation partners, we’re always looking forward to what’s next. From new technologies to ways to improve our ingredient systems, we continue to work with experts across the food and beverage industry to understand and implement ways to improve the performance of clean-label shelf-stable foods beyond what was ever thought possible.
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