Climatic Chamber for Food Testing

Product Testing for Food Products: Standards and Applications

The foods that fill our supermarket shelves are largely the result of elaborate industrial processes. The finished product that ends up on our tables, however, must meet several very strict requirements before leaving the factory.

These standards often refer to the basic HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) rules, a self-regulating standard that defines how, throughout the entire production process of a food product, the company in question must guarantee its hygiene and safety for the consumer, through systematic and documentable standard processes.

The FSSC 22000 code , a standard directly linked to ISO 2200 , also certifies food hygiene and safety, and is completed by TS 22002-1 for food and TS 22002-12 for related packaging.

Climate tests for food, such as those mentioned above, concern the product and all its flavors and substances, but also the packaging itself , which is assessed for its integrity and contact with the food itself.

Packaging tests also serve to confirm the color and resistance characteristics to heat and light, even long after sale and therefore to exposure to various agents.

Stability Test

Food testing characteristics are often grouped into the same category as cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry products.

All these tests are called stability tests.

The reason for this nomenclature is that the temperature to which the specimens are subjected remains constant for a certain period of time.

The stability test is contrasted with temperature cycling, tests in which the temperature is programmed via the controller with which the chamber is equipped, in different automatic cycles with different temperatures. 

This type of testing is very common in the automotive and aerospace.

Climatic Tests for Food

Climatic tests generally include both temperature and humidity control , to simulate real air humidity , but also, in some cases, lighting control .

Climatic tests for foods define their shelf life (product life cycle) and therefore their expiry date (shelf-life ). 

The so-called ongoing stability tests confirm or deny whether the good in question can maintain its organoleptic properties unchanged even after the expiry date.

Perform Climatic Stress Tests

Discover the new series of Climatic Chambers for controlled climate testing.
Find out more.

The Accelerated Aging Test

 
During the test accelerated aging, the temperature is brought very high or very low, to discover the different reactions to different climatic conditions.

This test is performed to simulate the real aging of products over their actual life cycle. 

Industrial times, however, must be much shorter than post-sales times. 

For two main reasons:

• Companies must constantly renew their product range to remain competitive with the competition.
• Even if it were just a single good that needed to be tested, both for time and cost, it is not possible for a company to wait two years of testing to reproduce a real situation.

The test temperature will therefore be higher than any possible temperature that the products will actually face in their life cycle, precisely so as to achieve, in weeks, what would normally take years.

As regards the illumination parameter, when testing the effects of light on food products, we are talking about tests photostability, to simulate day and night conditions.

Can't find the perfect chamber for your rehearsals?

Build your environment directly online, based on your specific needs.
Find out more.

Climatic Chamber for Food

Stability test chambers are often equipped with a glass door to allow the operator to monitor the progress of their samples in real time and, if necessary, handle and condition them.

The serving temperature is usually 0/70° (in some cases -25/70°).

The volume certainly depends on the type of sample to be analyzed, but when dealing with foodstuffs, a small chamber is generally preferred.

The reference controller, given the lack of the requirement to automatically program temperature cycles, will be a stillFACEtype programmer.

The FDM Climatic Chamber for food testing

FDM has been producing climatic chambers since 1949, and offers themost suitable solution for every requirement in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, for stability and accelerated aging tests.

The volumes are multiple, from 140 to 2300 liters for this specific field.

These ranges and volumes don't match your needs? Contact us and request a personalized quote.

The FDM team can work on any non-standard project, to meet the needs of each test.

Do you need to run stability tests?

Contact us for further information on FDM Stability Chambers.
Contact us

Shelf-Life and Food Climate Testing Regulations

• Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 — Provision of food information to consumers (expiry dates and storage times).
• Regulation (EC) 852/2004 — Hygiene of foodstuffs.
• Codex Alimentarius CAC/GL 77-2011 — Guidance for the Conduct of Microbiological Shelf-Life Studies.
• ISO 16140 — Protocol for the validation of methods for the microbiological analysis of food.
• ASTM F1980 — Accelerated Aging of Sterile Food and Medical Packaging.
• IFST Guidelines — Institute of Food Science and Technology shelf-life testing guide.

Authoritative Sources

• Codex Alimentarius FAO/WHO — International Food Standards.
• EFSA — European Food Safety Authority — European food safety guidelines.
• Ministry of Health — Food Safety — Italian reference legislation.

For shelf-life studies in a modified atmosphere, the CO₂ test chamber reproduces real-world storage conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions about Food Climatic Chambers

What is the difference between shelf-life testing and food stability testing?

Shelf-life testing determines a product's shelf life (TMC—Minimum Durability or expiration date), taking into account organoleptic, microbiological, and nutritional degradation. Stability testing is more technical: it measures the variation of specific parameters (humidity, aw, pH, oxidation) over time under controlled conditions. Shelf-life testing includes stability testing as part of the process.

What conditions are used for food shelf life?

Depends on the product and the expected storage temperature. Products at chamber temperature: 20-25°C/60% RH (realistic simulation) + 30°C or 40°C/75% RH for accelerated studies. Refrigerated products: 4°C + tests at 8-10°C for thermal abuse. Frozen products: -18°C with cycles at -10°C to simulate cold chain fluctuations. The ASTM F1980 uses the Q10 rule: for every 10°C increase, degradation rate × 2-3.

Do you need a chamber other than the pharmaceutical ones?

Technically, no: ICH pharmaceutical climate chambers fully meet food requirements, often with stricter tolerances than necessary. In practice, the food industry chooses less expensive and larger because they don't require the 21 CFR Part 11 compliance and extreme uniformity required by GMP. FDM produces dedicated food shelf-life chambers with volumes up to 2,000 L and costs 30-40% less than GMP pharmaceutical versions.

Do climate chambers simulate the cold chain?

Yes, dedicated chambers can reproduce typical supply chain temperature cycles: from -25°C (cold storage) to +25°C (non-refrigerated transport) to +5°C (supermarket display case). This type of test is essential for insulated packaging, ice cream, seafood, and fresh meat. Custom FDM chambers allow for programmable multi-step profiles with cumulative durations of up to 12 months for long-term testing.