QUALITY CHANGES OF FROZEN PEAS DURING DISTRIBUTION, ESPECIALLY IN RETAIL CABINETS

The time and temperature of several frozen foods in different components of the freezer chain in Denmark has been investigated, and are given as distribution curves showing the probability of a package being exposed to a certain temperature or time condition or better.
Based on these figures, the shelf life loss of frozen peas has been calculated.
The 75% fractiles have been used, meaning that for each component of the freezer chain we have used such data for time and for temperature that only 25% of all packages will be exposed to more adverse conditions.

Storage life data for frozen peas are taken from TTT-experiments in USA.

Special attention has been given to the display cabinets, where data for residence time and stock rotation are presented.

Experiments on the influence of storage in different display cabinets on product quality, in this case measured as in-package frost formation, have shown that in the open-top gondola type cabinets it is a big advantage to use night covers.
Also, the number of defrostings could preferably be reduced to something like 6 per week; this demands special regulatory systems, e.g. a warmer thermostat setting during the night (when the night cover is on) than during selling hours.

In glass door cabinets there seems to be more constant temperatures than in the open-top cabinets, leading to reduced in-package frost formation.

Symposium on Quality of Vegetables

L. Boegh-Soerensen

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1984.163.20