Challenge
Assess the feasibility of storing fruit-based frozen ingredients at –15 °C instead of the –18 °C required by current legislation.
The project evaluates the impact on product quality and food safety, and quantifies the potential energy savings, with the aim of proposing more sustainable storage practices supported by technical criteria.
Project results
For the plant matrices analysed, the results confirm the feasibility of storing frozen products at –15 °C rather than the conventional –18 °C, without compromising quality or food safety.
This evidence is particularly relevant because there are currently no specific regulatory criteria for validating, through experimental studies, storage conditions that differ from conventional practice. In the absence of such criteria, conservative margins have traditionally been applied by default.
The Spanish Food Code defines freezing without establishing a single temperature threshold. This opens the door to alternative approaches supported by scientific evidence, such as that generated by Iberfruta through this project, and represents a step towards more sustainable and energy-efficient storage practices.
