Matís' recent report discusses a shelf life experiment on pre-chilled, fresh cod fillets.
The experiment took place in March 2010 as part of the European project Chill on (EU FP6-016333-2) and the Icelandic project Hermun kæliferla, which is funded by the AVS Fisheries Research Fund, the Rannís Technology Development Fund and the University of Iceland Research Fund.
The aim of the experiments was, among other things, to investigate how well two types of foam boxes protect cod neck pieces from a typical heat load in an air transport chain from a producer in northern Iceland to a buyer in Europe. Temperature measurements, sensory evaluation, chemical and microbial measurements were used to compare the foam boxes and examine the importance of the location of fillet pieces within the box (corner and center).
The new foam box, designed with the FLUENT heat transfer model, proved to be better than the older box in terms of thermal insulation. The temperature load on the first day of the experiment caused the highest product temperature in the corners to rise to 5.4 ° C in the older model but only to 4.5 ° C in the new model. The difference between the highest product temperature in the middle and the corners of the box was about 2 to 3 ° C.
Sensory evaluation showed that storage in the new foam box led to two to three days longer freshness period and one to two days longer shelf life for storage in the older foam box.
Position within the box (angle and center) did not significantly affect sensory evaluation results and there was only a small difference between placements in TVB-N and TMA measurements.
Promens Tempra ehf. (http://www.tempra.is) has already started production of the new foam box.
The report can be found here: http://www.matis.is/media/matis/utgafa/29-10-Effect-of-improved-design-of-wholesale.pdf
For further information, please contact Björn Margeirsson, mechanical engineer and doctoral student at the University of Iceland and Matís (bjornm@matis.is).