To preview a food shelf-life is essential to evaluate the kinetics of degradation reactions beyond the orientation of the more appropriate conservation conditions of the products. For the dehydrated apple shelf-life estimative, the product was packed in PE film of 140 and stored at 5 °C (control), 25 °C (room) and 35 °C (accelerated) temperatures and then evaluated based on objective color readings of L, a and b Hunter during 6 months at a 15-day interval. Experimental data showed that the color degradation follows the model of a zero order kinetic reaction. The Arrhenius model was applied to reaction rates (k) at each temperature and an activation energy (Ea) of 7.6 kcal.mol-1 and Q10 of = 2.0 was obtained. Shelf-life evaluation was based on subjective (Difference from Control Sensorial Discriminative Test) measurements over 4 months at 15 day intervals. The results suggest that the product stored at 35 °C has 100 days shelf-life time. Since Q10= 2.0, the product stored at room temperature might be 200 days shelf-life time.
dehydrated apple; kinetic degradation; shelf-life; sensorial evaluation; Hunter colorimetry
