Session 3

Food Spoilage
FS3120 – Food Safety and Toxicology
Dasep Wahidin, Ph.D
dasep.wahidin@i3l.ac.id
Related Learning Outcomes

Upon the end of this session, students will be able to:

• LO1: Understand the relationship between food safety and food suitability
in the context of food spoilage
• LO2: Explain the methodology of determining rates of spoilage and shelf-
life
• LO3: Differentiate between stomach flu and foodborne illness
Related CLO:
• CLO1: Provide an overview of a food safety system, starting from an
introduction of HACCP through to the principles of a functioning HACCP
system
• CLO2: Identify sources and risks associated with microbiological, chemical
and physical hazards in food.
Introduction

• Last week we’ve talked in depth about risk assessments.

• Where you should understand that any type of food product carries a certain
level of risk, that is determined through thorough analysis
• What we have not discussed is the time frame of these risks
• So this week we’re going to discuss about spoilage
• Let’s review some definitions first
 Definitions - I

• Food safety: assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer
when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use
• Food suitability: Aspects of food that make food unfit for human
consumption without presenting a danger to human health
• Food Hygiene: Conditions for ensuring both safety and suitability of
foods.
Definitions - II

• These definitions are taken directly from the General standard for the labelling of pre-
packaged foods (CODEX STAN 1-1985)
• “Date of Manufacture” means the date on which the food becomes the product as
described. This is not an indication of the durability of the product.
• “Date of Packaging” means the date on which the food is placed in the immediate
container in which it will be ultimately sold. This is not an indication of the durability of
the product.
• “Best Before Date” or “Best Quality Before Date” means the date which signifies the end
of the period, under any stated storage conditions, during which the unopened product
will remain fully marketable and will retain any specific qualities for which implied or
express claims have been made. However, beyond the date the food may still be
acceptable for consumption.
• “Use-by Date” or “Expiration Date” means the date which signifies the end of the period
under any stated storage conditions, after which the product should not be sold or
consumed due to safety and quality reasons.
Introduction to Spoilage - I

• Food Spoilage can be defined as:

• “The process or change leading to a product becoming undesirable or unacceptable for
human consumption.” (Blackburn, 2006)
• This means that the product has either or both the food safety and suitability problems and is
no longer acceptable for consumption
• When you do the risk analysis frame the food with a realistic shelf life
• For example:
• If the E. coli O157H:7 can only grow at high water activity and your product has a low water
activity you would assume the risk of E. coli to be low.
• However, over time your food will pick up moisture from the environment and maybe in 5-6
months will have enough water activity to support the growth of E. coli .
• What you need to do as a food producer is to make sure that the risk assessment
is actually applicable to your product
• Very important to understand the food product in the right context
• Processing, packaging, storage
Introduction to Spoilage - II

• So today we will discuss the different rates of spoilage, how to

measure these rates
• Then we will focus on the major consequence of consuming spoiled
food poisoning
• There are a multitude of consequences of consumption of spoiled foods,
however for this class we will focus on the worst possible outcome: food
poisoning
 Food Spoilage

• FS3120 – Food Safety and Toxicology - Session 3 – Part 1

Food Spoilage

• Again, food Spoilage can be defined as:

• “The process or change leading to a product becoming undesirable or
unacceptable for human consumption.” (Blackburn, 2006)
• Some of these changes are quite apparent and observable, while
some are more subtle
• There are a lot of literature sources that can be found for the major
types of food products and their rates of spoilage
• Newer types of products usually does not have this research done
Types of Spoilage

• Spoilage can be a natural phenomenon, the enzymes that exists in the

food product will naturally break down the food over time.
• This is very apparent in fruits and vegetables
• On the next slide are some enzymes naturally present in food
products that will cause food spoilage
• However its not just enzymes that can cause spoilage, many types of
microorganisms can cause changes to the food product that will not
make it undesirable for human consumption
Food Spoilage
Quantifying Spoilage

• To understand: when will the food spoil? We need to be able to

quantify spoilage
• To do this we use a method known as Shelf-life Testing (SLT) or
Accelerated Shelf-life Testing (ASLT)
• These methods look at the rate of change for observable
physicochemical property(ies) over time
• In ASLT we add an additional variable of temperature or humidity
• By observing and determining the rate of change we can approximate
a shelf life of the product
Rates of Spoilage - I

• In general the rate of spoilage is determined by first observing all of the

physicochemical properties of the food product over a long period of time
and across different conditions
• After you find one or more physicochemical property that changes reliably over time
and across temperatures or humidity you will find a “key” physicochemical property
of the product
• In terms of safety you need to look at the aspects of food that we discussed
last class, such as: pH, aw, you can determine when your product will
become unsafe due to the growth of microorganisms
• Depending on the physicochemical property being observed the rate of
change may be different over time or over temperature or humidity
• See the next slide
Rates of Spoilage - II

• As a rule of thumb, rate of spoilage tends to become faster over time,

therefore the changes in your observable physicochemical properties
is going to change faster over time
• In terms of microorganisms we can combat this acceleration by
lowering the initial load of microorganisms that exists in the food by
processing
• More extreme processes will increase shelf life by slowing down the rate of
spoilage. The drawback being the poor sensorial properties of the product
• Therefore processing food is very important to determining shelf life
• See the next slide for an illustration of this concept
Introduction to relative rate of spoilage (RRS) models, DTU
Rates of Spoilage - III

• These kinds of experiments are very important to do, and requires

skill to make a good predictive spoilage model
• Once you have the rates of spoilage you can input into equations (see the
next slide) to get a model that can predict the spoilage of the food product
• Most industries don’t really implement this methodology however,
they just do internal sensory analysis to determine the shelf life of
their products
• If they do implement this methodology it is closed for their internal use due
to confidentiality
T = temperature (oC); K = temperature in Kelvin; R = gas constant (8.31 J mol-1 K-1); k1, k2, k3 =
constant
Introduction to relative rate of spoilage (RRS) models, DTU (Modified from Dalgaard (2003)
Case Study - I

• Lets take a look at a real life inspection scenario

• When you import any kind of fish product, the country of
destination will check your product actually is what you claim it to be.
• Whether it is the fish that you claim it to be, the age, farming method etc.
• The inspectors will check on various things regarding your product
• For a full description you can find it in the link below
• https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-safety-for-industry/archived-food-guidance/fish-and-
seafood/imports/product-inspection/eng/1360343085758/1360343335938?chap=5
• I’ve linked to it on ACIS as well
Case Study - II

• They do many types of toxicity tests on different parts of the fish

depending on the origin and species of the fish
• We will cover this later this semester
• They also check for spoilage, the way they do this is by checking the levels
of histamine in the meat and organs and roe
• Histamine levels of certain fish will increase over time if the fish has not been stored
in cold/frozen storage, and can be detected before the fish develops a bad odor
• As such you can know the storage conditions of the fish throughout transport
• If the levels are high, it means that the fish has not been stored properly and is likely
to spoil soon
• You can read more about this in the book chapter I have added to ACIS:
• CHAPTER 7: Scombrotoxin (Histamine) Formation
Case Study - III

• As I mentioned earlier they check on a lot of different factors, all of

these have been thoroughly experimented on an each of these
measurements are indicators of spoilage that is relevant to fish and
fish products.
• Not all of these measurements are done on each fish though, on the
next slide you’re going to see a decision tree for seafood products
that indicate what kind of tests should be done for what kind of
product
Seafood
Product
 Food Poisoning

• FS3120 – Food Safety and Toxicology - Session 3 – Part 2

Food Poisoning

• So what actually happens when you consume spoiled food?

• Worst case scenario: you contract a foodborne illness or you have suffered
from food poisoning
• Two general types:
• Food infection – Caused ingesting microorganism which then grows in your
body
• Food intoxication – Caused by ingesting toxins
• This is a superficial classification, as you guys should be aware there
are a lot of gray areas that overlap between biological and chemical
hazards
 Problematic Foods
• As we’ve discussed last class and earlier Sources of Foodborne Diseases
today, not all foods can cause in the USA in 2016
foodborne illnesses at the same rate
• The rate of spoilage is different for each
food product 6%

• Statistically speaking Beef usually Plant

causes the highest number of 18%
34% Beef
foodborne illness Pork

• This is likely due to the high volume of Chicken

consumption in the US 13%

Other land animals

• Also the trend for more undercooked meat Seafood

is likely a compounding factor 9%

Other land animals

• I don’t have data for Indonesia, but I

9%
11%

would think that there would be a shift

of more cases from chicken if this was
Indonesia Source of data: Dewey-Mattia, et al. (2018)
Symptoms of Foodborne Illness

• As I have mentioned last class, a lot of the symptoms of foodborne

illness are similar, there are also viruses that can cause stomach
issues that does not rely on food as a vector
• We will discuss this more in depth next class
• However we can start to differentiate the symptoms of foodborne
illness vs. stomach bugs
• Viruses that cause Gastrointestinal issues without using food as vectors
• You can see a decision tree on the next slide
• You can see a summary table of the symptoms on the slide after next
Conclusion

• Food spoilage is:

• “The process or change leading to a product becoming undesirable or unacceptable
for human consumption.” (Blackburn, 2006)
• Food spoilage can refer to both or either food safety or food suitability
• To understand food spoilage you must be able to quantify the rate of
spoilage
• This is done through extensive research using Shelf-life Testing (SLT) or Accelerated
Shelf-life Testing (ASLT)
• These tests look at observable physicochemical properties over time and other
conditions such as temperature and humidity
• If you consume spoiled food you may contract foodborne
illnesses or suffer from food poisoning
• You can determine whether you have a foodborne illness or a stomach bug through a
decision tree
Assignment for next week

• FS3120 – Food Safety and Toxicology - Session 3 – Part 3

Assignment for Next Week - I

• Assessment of In-home Food Safety

• Discuss amongst your team members a dish that you make at home
• Choose one dish – requirements:
• Cooked from raw ingredients, but can use ready-to-use sauces/ condiments
• Cannot be a ready-to-eat dish
• Give a short description of the dish you chose
• List the ingredients required for the dish
• Do an assessment of your processing flow specific to the home/ dorm of the team member from
grocery store to the final plate
• Where do you buy your groceries?
• How do you transport the groceries to your home? (i.e. Cooler, plastic bag)
• Where do you store it in the home? (Fridge? Separately from which products?)
• How do you cook it? Make sure to include information on measure of doneness where possible (i.e. frying until golden
brown/ until it stops bubbling)
• How do you serve it?
• Assess potential food safety risks
• Make a list of hazards and likelihood of the risk
• https://active.inspection.gc.ca/rdhi-bdrid/english/rdhi-bdrid/searece.aspx?i=11
Assignment for Next Week - II

• Please prepare a report to be submitted next class

• Formatting:
o Font: Times New Roman
o Spacing: Single
o Margins: Normal (1” all sides)
o Header top left: Include names for all group members
o Header top center: Assignment #...
o File name: FS3120 Assignment #... Group #
• Citation:
o Citation style: APA
o The two resources cited in these instructions have been uploaded on ACIS
o Make sure to cite all article(s) that you are using
• Peer Review:
o Do not forget to do the peer review
o https://forms.gle/BFuexMVRTjZReRP18
Grading
Inadequate Adequate Above Average Excellent
Criteria Weight Score
– D (≤2) – C (3-5) – B (6-8) – A (9-10)
Does not summarize the Partially summarizes the Mostly summarizes the Fully summarizes the
Coverage 25
topic(s) assigned topic(s) assigned topic(s) assigned topic(s) assigned
Does not understand the Partially understands the Mostly understands the Fully understands the
Understanding 25
topic topic topic topic
Does not apply the correct Minimal application of Partial application of the Full application of the
Application of
knowledge to the the correct knowledge to correct knowledge to the correct knowledge to the 25
Knowledge
corresponding topic the corresponding topic corresponding topic corresponding topic
Lack of correct scientific Partial use of correct Good use of correct Proficient use of correct
Scientific terminology, unable to scientific terminology to scientific terminology to scientific terminology to
10
communication communicate ideas communicate ideas communicate ideas communicate ideas
efficiently efficiently efficiently efficiently
Does not meet Partially meets Mostly meets assignment Meets all assignment
Formatting assignment requirements assignment requirements requirements for requirements for 5
for formatting for formatting formatting formatting
Peer 15
Google form: https://forms.gle/BFuexMVRTjZReRP18
Assessment
Total
Group Distribution
• After the class, please make 10 groups consist of 6-7 people
• Class representative shall send that list to me tonight at last 11.30 PM
• Each group is required to appoint a team leader.
• Team Leader responsibilities:
• Making sure work is divided evenly and submitted on time
• Communicate with me if there are any issues within the group
• Please make WAG with all of you and me for easier communication.
References

• Schmidt, R. H. & Rodrick, G. E. (2003). Food Safety Handbook, Wiley-

Interscience
• Blackburn, C. W. (2006). Food spoilage microorganisms. Boca Raton:
CRC.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2001). Fish and fisheries products:
Hazards and controls guidance.
• Dewey-Mattia, Daniel, et al. "Surveillance for foodborne disease
outbreaks–United States, 2016: annual report." (2018).