Shelf-life refers to the period of time during which under reasonably foreseeable conditions of storage, distribution and use, a food product can be considered safe and in optimal condition. The speed of a product’s qualitative (sensorial, microbiological, chemical-physical, nutritional etc.) deterioration in specific processing, storage, and distribution conditions needs to be evaluated in order to determine how long that period should last.
Temperature & bacteria
Temperature is one of the most important extrinsic factors affecting the speed of a product’s qualitative deterioration. It represents, in fact, one of the major obstacles to the development of bacteria and one of the most relevant factors influencing the product’s stability and quality. Under article 9, comma G of the Commission Regulation (EC) n. 1169/2011, food business operators are obligated to provide consumers with labeled information specifying the conditions in which a prepackaged product is to be stored and, in particular, its temperature which, except for rare cases specified by the law, must be established by the producer/manufacturer and specified on the label
