METHOD OF DETERMINING USEFUL TIME OF FOODS Russian patent published in 2002 - IPC

FIELD: food industry. SUBSTANCE: invention, in particular, relates to dairy produce and consists in examining samples of produce, analyzing characteristics of oxidative damage of fat components of produce, and finding useful time from these characteristics. Oxidative damage of produce is characterized by aldehyde and/or ketone level in sample and remaining shelf time of produce is calculated in terms of kinetic equation for fat oxidation reaction. More specifically, aldehyde and/or ketone level can be measured photometrically at wavelength 350-450 nm using thiobarbituric acid as group reagent in a nonaqueous medium and isopropyl alcohol as reference. In addition, total fat oxidation rate is measured in food at specified storage temperature and remaining shelf time at this very temperature. EFFECT: reduced determination time and increased determination accuracy. 4 cl, 1 tbl