Validation study on new isothermal container for hot ready to eat food in catering establishments: Preliminary results
https://doi.org/10.4081/ijfs.2020.8417
Accepted: 27 October 2019
HTML: 23
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
The production methods, in particular the cook-serve method, applied in high production catering establishments, even if inserted in a correct spatial design, it is affected by time-temperature flows characterized by inadequate designed moments during which critical points can be observed. The aim of this study was to evaluate, at a preliminary stage, how the new technologies can support the supply chain and production processes in catering establishments. To this end, a specific passive and active heat storage system was tested: “Polibox Smart Heater®” (PX SH), which makes an isothermal expanded polypropylene container an advanced maintainer for ready to eat food. The experimental design was divided into four different experiments, during which the functionality of the isothermal containers was evaluated, and thermal-tightness tests were carried out. The results showed that the PX SH containers, containing a heat accumulator, are temperature maintainers, which guarantee thermal stability (>65°C), according to the current standard (UNI EN 12571:1999). In conclusion, the production chain of catering establishments should use innovative technologies such as PX SH, in order to benefit from performance consistent with the safety, hygiene and sensory criteria.
Moreb NA, Priyadarshini A, Jaiswal AK, 2017. Knowledge of food safety and food handling practices amongst food handlers in the Republic of Ireland. Food Control, 80: 341-349. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2017.05.020
EFSA, 2016. The European Union summary report on trends of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2016. EFSA Journal 2017; 15: 5077.
DeLind LB, Howard PH, 2008. Safe at any scale? Food scares, food regulation, and scaled alternatives. Agric Human Values, 25(3): 301-317. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-007-9112-y
Griffith C, 2000. Food safety in catering establishments. M. Tech. in Food Science & Technology, 235-256.
Pichler J, Ziegler J, Aldrian U, Allerberger F, 2014. Evaluating levels of knowledge on food safety among food handlers from restaurants and various catering businesses in Vienna, Austria 2011/2012. Food Control, 35(1): 33-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.06.034
Ozawa H, Ohmura A, Lorenz RD, Pujol T, 2003. The second law of thermodynamics and the global climate system: A review of the maximum entropy production principle. Rev. Geophys, 41(4). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2002RG000113
Ratkowsky DA, Olley J, McMeekin TA, Ball A, 1982. Relationship between temperature and growth rate of bacterial cultures. J. Bacteriol., 149(1): 1-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.149.1.1-5.1982
Marzano MA, Balzaretti CM, 2011. Cook-serve method in mass catering establishments: Is it still appropriate to ensure a high level of microbiological quality and safety?. Food control, 22(12): 1844-1850. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2011.04.024
Brody AL, Bugusu B, Han JH, Sand CK, Mchugh TH, 2008. Innovative food packaging solutions. J. Food Sci., 73(8): 107-116. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2008.00933.x
Limbo L PS, Piergiovanni L, 2010. Food Packaging. Materiali, Tecnologie e qualità degli alimenti. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1457-2
Goodland R, 1995. The concept of environmental sustainability. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst., 26(1): 1-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.26.110195.000245
Haas W, Krausmann F, Wiedenhofer D, Heinz M, 2015. How circular is the global economy?: An assessment of material flows, waste production, and recycling in the European Union and the world in 2005. J. Ind. Ecol, 19(5): 765-777. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12244
Hahladakis JN, Iacovidou E, 2018. Closing the loop on plastic packaging materials: What is quality and how does it affect their circularity?. Sci Total Environ, 630: 1394-1400. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.330
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Downloads
Citations
