Muyambo Shadreck and Urombo A. Jack
Prediction of shelf quality of yogurts is very essential for effective shelf quality monitoring process, development and optimisation of current products. This paper suggests various models which may be used to define the shelf status of stirred yogurts at definite shelf time and product temperature. The variables which were used in the modelling process include pH, lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria quantity, Bostwick consistency, shelf time and temperature. A polynomial model which consisted of the shelf time and pH of the product was obtained for the prediction of the quantity of lactic acid bacteriabifidobacteria( ). The flow quality of the yogurts was expressed by introducing the Fundamental Flow index, which encompasses parameters such as temperature, Bostwick consistency and total solids. The distribution of values were observed to depend on temperature and total solids of the yogurt. The pH and Bostwick consistency were also observed to be depended on temperature and as such temperature correction models were established which depend on the temperature correction factor, . The predicted values show no significance difference with the actual at 95% confidence interval (p>0.05) and the validation methods indicate that the models have greater prediction power for estimating accurate values.
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