Numerical investigation into the product's weight loss and display shelf life inside the serve-over cabinet

Abstract

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) One of the most important aspects of chilled food deterioration in delicatessen cabinets economically is associated with drying, rather than spoilage mechanism, especially for unwrapped products. Investigating the effects of the bacterial spoilage and moisture migration for chilled-unwrapped food product such as sandwiches, which have short display shelf life, and knowing the optimum boundary conditions that provide longer displays shelf life can significantly contribute to reduction of wastage of this type of product during its display, and operate refrigeration systems in the most efficient manner. Recent years have seen an increase in customer demand for fresh convenience food, which has resulted in a major increase in the volume of sales of unwrapped products. Surface drying has been identified as the main reason for commercial loss from unwrapped chilled food in display cabinets. Surface drying increases weight loss and leads to colour changes that are undesirable. A 2D Computational Fluid Dynamic model was constructed for the serve-over display cabinet that includes the weight loss from products inside the cabinet. The model was used to investigate the effect of the environmental boundary conditions on the drying rate and display shelf life. Validation was carried out by comparison of measured results of the product temperature, drying rate and display shelf life of the product inside the cabinet, to those predicted by the simulations. The results show that improving the operating boundary conditions inside the display cabinet can improve the food quality, reduce the drying rate of the food product and increase the display shelf life.