ShareICCC2013 highlights: FRISBEE input: a quality, energy and environmental assessment tool for the European cold chain
In the framework of the EU-FP7 FRISBEE project – in which the IIR is involved –, QEEAT, a software tool was developed to assess food quality and safety evolution, energy usage and CO2 emission of different refrigeration technologies along the European cold chain.
In the framework of the EU-FP7 FRISBEE project – in which the IIR is involved –, QEEAT, a software tool was developed to assess food quality and safety evolution, energy usage and CO2 emission of different refrigeration technologies along the European cold chain.
A reference product was chosen for the main different food categories in the European cold chain.
Software code to predict the products temperature using the room temperature as input, based on validated heat and mass transfer models, were written in Matlab (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, USA).
Also, based on validated kinetic models for the different quality indicators of the reference products, a software code was written to calculate the quality and safety evolutions of the food product, using the predicted product temperature as input.
Finally, software code to calculate the energy usage and Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) value of different refrigeration technologies was also written in Matlab.
All three software codes were integrated, and a graphical user interface was developed.
Using the graphical user interface, a user can tailor a cold chain scenario by adding different cold chain blocks. Each cold chain block has properties that can be modified. The tool can be used to compare different cold chains with respect to quality, safety, energy usage, and environmental impact.
A quality, energy and environmental assessment tool for the European cold chain, S.G. Gwanpua et al.
This paper can be downloaded wia the IIR’s Fridoc database (free for IIR members within the framework of their quota of free downloads). You just have to login and search for the paper via Fridoc database (search column).
A reference product was chosen for the main different food categories in the European cold chain.
Software code to predict the products temperature using the room temperature as input, based on validated heat and mass transfer models, were written in Matlab (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, USA).
Also, based on validated kinetic models for the different quality indicators of the reference products, a software code was written to calculate the quality and safety evolutions of the food product, using the predicted product temperature as input.
Finally, software code to calculate the energy usage and Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) value of different refrigeration technologies was also written in Matlab.
All three software codes were integrated, and a graphical user interface was developed.
Using the graphical user interface, a user can tailor a cold chain scenario by adding different cold chain blocks. Each cold chain block has properties that can be modified. The tool can be used to compare different cold chains with respect to quality, safety, energy usage, and environmental impact.
A quality, energy and environmental assessment tool for the European cold chain, S.G. Gwanpua et al.
This paper can be downloaded wia the IIR’s Fridoc database (free for IIR members within the framework of their quota of free downloads). You just have to login and search for the paper via Fridoc database (search column).