The shelf life of food not only affects consumers' sensory enjoyment of food, but also has an important impact on consumers' health. For food producers, accurately predicting the shelf life of food is related to the reputation and economic benefits of the producers; Accurate prediction of food shelf life is also very important to ensure food safety and can provide effective basis for food circulation and distribution.

The shelf life of food is determined by pharmacopoeia and laboratory data. Before determining the shelf life of a food, it is necessary to analyze the objective quality changes of food such as microbial inspection, physical and chemical inspection and sensory inspection.

Generally, the method of determining the shelf life of food is determined by enterprises themselves, while some products are determined by national regulations, such as alcohol, beverages, canned food, sugar and so on.

At present, the following two methods are usually used to determine the shelf life:

1. According to the distribution and logistics of products in the market, consider the shelf life of the same series of products and consumers' cognition, and determine a shelf life.

2. Store the food in particularly harsh conditions, and then conduct quality inspection for many times on a regular basis, and then test the quality through sensory evaluation or physical and chemical properties of the product. Finally, the shelf life under normal storage conditions (ASLT test) is obtained by extrapolating the test results (reasonable speculation).

Legal basis:

The Food Hygiene Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that it is forbidden to sell food that has exceeded its shelf life. Shelf life refers to the final date when the food can be eaten under the date specified in the label: after this period, the quality of the product may change, so the food is no longer suitable for sale. Shelf life is the best edible period of food, and shelf life is the recommended final edible period. If the shelf life or storage period is related to the storage conditions of food, the storage method must be indicated, such as cold storage, dark storage, cool and dry storage, etc. Consumers should also pay attention to whether the seller's sales environment meets the conditions stipulated on the label when buying food. The General Standard for Food Labeling also stipulates that foods whose shelf life has been clearly stipulated in national standards or industry standards or whose shelf life is more than 18 months can be exempted from shelf life or shelf life.