Design and testing of Modified Atmosphere Packaging of cow’s ricotta

"The aim of this work is to evaluate the shelf life of cow’s ricotta under MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging). MAP is a packaging technique commonly used in the food industry in order to control the microbial growth. After the extraction of the air present in the headspace of the package, a mixture of CO2, O2 and N2 in different percentage is usually introduced before the packaging sealing. Based on these premises, a design of experimental tests has been created in order to evaluate the effect of each process parameters. To perform these test, it is also required the creation of thermoformed trays (made with a multilayer material using PET/EVOH/PE) in which the ricotta was inserted and packaged in a modified atmosphere. After the time intervals established in the experimental program, the analysis of the MAP was carried out using a special instrument (“Oxybaby” made by Witt SpA), able to measure the quantity of gas present in the headspace of the thermoformed trays. Then a statistical analysis of the obtained results was carried out. The results showed that after 10 days the product was edible for all types of atmosphere, but at 20 and, especially, at 30 days, even in the trays wrapped with CO2, the product was not acceptable for human consumption. One of the possible solutions, in order to lengthen the shelf life of cow’s ricotta, consists in the pre-sterilization of the trays before the product packaging with a solution of H2O2."

Simulation in food catering industry. A dashboard of performance indicators

"Contract catering industry is concerned with the production of ready-to-eat meals for schools, hospitals and private companies. The structure of this market is highly competitive, and customers are rarely willing to pay a high price for this catering service. A single production sites may be demanded up to 10.000 meals per day and these operations can hardly be managed via rule of thumbs without any quantitative decision support tool. This situation is common at several stages of a food supply chain and the methodologies presented in this paper are addressed to any food batch production system with similar complexity and trade-offs. This paper proposes an original KPI dashboard, designed to control costs, time and quality efficiency and helping managers to identify criticalities. Special emphasis is given on food safety control which is the management’s main concern and must be carefully monitored in each stage of the production. To calculate the value of KPIs a Montecarlo simulation approach is used to deal with production complexity and uncertainty. A case study showcases the potential of simulation in this complex industrial field. The case study illustrates an application of the methodology on an Italian company suffering local recipe contamination. The company aims at defining the best standard for production, identifying cycles being sustainable from an economic and environmental point of view."

"Sustainability evaluation of last mile food delivery: pick up point using lockers versus home delivery"

"The Last mile delivery is known as one of the most costly and highest polluting stages within the food supply chain where food companies deliver the food products to the final consumers. As a new approach in this area, currently, a few food retailers offering pick up point service delivery using lockers. This paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the sustainability performance between home service delivery and picks up point service delivery using lockers. Hypothetical last mile food models for both approaches are developed. A Vehicle Route Problem with Time Window (VRPTW) is developed to minimise the CO2 emission and implemented using the simulated annealing algorithm which is programmed in MATLAB software. Supply Chain GURU Software is adapted to implement the Greenfield analysis to identify the optimal number and the location of the locker facilities through a Greenfield service constraint."

Application of REA-method to a convective drying of apple rings at ambient temperature

This study focuses on the convective drying of apple rings without any extra-heating of the processing ambient air. The lumped reaction engineering approach (REA) model has been employed to determine the rate of drying for the apple rings under forced convection considered as a normal processing regime. The algorithm implies determination the activation energy curve from the accurate ‘reference’ measurements of the drying rate under natural convection conditions. The required for the model implementation mass transfer coefficients for the apple ring samples under natural and forced conditions were obtained in the series of customized experiments. The study does extend the application of REA for the limiting simplest case of convective drying of thick samples under ambient temperature condition."

"Life cycle analysis and environmental impact of manufacturing Chateau and burgundy wine barrels"

"In the process of red wine aging, the barrel plays a fundamental role both in the contribution of aromas and in the stabilization of the wine and its color. There are, however, different types of barrels, depending on materials, species and origin of the oak, morphology and geometry, and capacity (from 225 liters to larger formats of 300 and 500 liters). The purpose of this work is to perform the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of these barrel formats and compare them with the 225-liter Bordeaux barrel, providing detailed information on these products that can serve as a reference for their use in the calculation of the impact of its application in the wine aging processes. We will consider, for the realization of the present LCA, all the phases of process and manufacture of the barrel that cover from the contribution of materials and their processing until the final storage."

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of different packaging systems for coffee capsules

"The aim of this work is to compare the environmental impact of three different packaging systems for coffee capsules, which can be used in the same coffee machine. A comparative Life Cycle Assessment has been performed considering the following three types of coffee capsules: 1. Compostable coffee capsules packaged into a multichamber PET tray. 2. Capsules made of aluminium and packaged into cardboard boxes. 3. Capsules made of polypropylene with an aluminium top lid, singularly packaged in modified atmosphere into a bag made of multilayer film of aluminium and polypropylene. The functional unit considered is a coffee capsule. To evaluate the environmental impact, the EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) method is used. This work shows that it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of compostable capsules packaged in PET tray by two ways: by using a less polluting starch polymer and by producing biogas instead of compost from the organic waste. With these improvements, the compostable coffee capsule in PET tray results the less damaging packaging system for all categories except than for the ozone layer depletion and the fossil fuels depletion."

Improving integration in supply chain traceability systems for perishable products

"Traceability represents a major concern in supply chains of perishable products. Progress enables complex and integrated monitoring systems based on Internet of Things (IoT), continuous monitoring and real-time alerting. However, the adoption rate of these innovations is not fast enough due to the need of expensive equipment and a robust digital infrastructure. The use of inappropriate technology and the lack of standardization between different monitoring systems often causes data leakage during storage and transportation. The lack of a standard in the traceability tools also causes difficulties in merging the output preventing the formation of a seamless cold chain. This paper presents a decision support tool that helps practitioners to track and trace the perishable products at each stage of the supply chain. The tool gathers data from multiple sources with different data structures, merge the files and fill missing data with the aid of a routing tool and weather forecasting databases. The output of this tool is a unique file containing all the traceability data about the product during its life-cycle. The tool also visualizes the traceability data through the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) based on OpenStreetMap."

"A quantitative microbiological exposure assessment model for bacillus cereus in packaged rice cakes with thermal processing"

"The objective of this study was to develop quantitative microbial exposure assessment models for Bacillus cereus in packaged rice cakes (PRC). Probability distribution for growth of B. cereus in PRC was estimated and effects of thermal processing and acidification on extending the shelf-life of PRC were quantitatively assessed. Heat penetration curves at cold point for retort process and pasteurization were successfully predicted using heat transfer simulation model (RMSE < 0.77 ºC). The retort process showed a better sterilization effect than the pasteurization process, but degraded the quality of rice cakes such as color, shape, and texture. The final contamination level in PRC of slab shape package (> 6.63 log CFU/g at 95% level) was lower than that in randomly packed sample (> 7.77 log CFU/g at 95% level) because the cold point in the slab shape package was closer to the surface. Acidification significantly inhibited the growth of B. cereus and also affected the inactivation of B. cereus. A combination of acidification and low temperature pasteurization extended the shelf-life of PRC, while minimizing quality degradation of products (< 0.43 log CFU/g at 95% level)."