Interactions between refrigeration temperatures, energy consumption in a food plant and microbiological quality of the food product: Application to refrigerated stuffed pasta

Abstract Food refrigeration is essential to maintain microbiological quality but it accounts for high energy impact. An integrative modelling approach was developed to estimate the impact of increasing refrigeration temperature in the processing plant, on energy consumption, products temperatures, and the food product microbiology. The food product was a pasteurized refrigerated fresh pasta. The microbial indicators considered were Bacillus cereus for safety and total aerobic microflora for spoilage, with limits at consumption of respectively 105 CFU g−1 and 106 CFU g−1. Through six scenarios, the impacts of temperatures ranging from −2 °C to 8 °C in the cooling tunnel, and from 4 °C to 6 °C in the end products cold room storage in the processing plant, were simulated. The same refrigeration conditions throughout the entire cold chain up to the consumer, based on temperature and residence time data of a field study, were applied to all these processing plant refrigeration scenarios. Fixing 8 °C to the cooling tunnel and 6 °C to the cold room reduced the absorbed electrical power by ~20% with ~10% increase of microbiologically defective products at time of consumption. Increasing cooling tunnel temperature saved more energy than increasing cold room temperature for the same impact on microbiology. The modelling approach presented could help food companies to design the best strategy to reduce refrigeration energy consumption in their processing plant.