Designing an active phase change material package for thermal and qualitative protection of meat

The aim of this study is to design a phase change material (PCM) package prototype for maintaining meat cold temperature and quality during its exposure to room temperature, or during temperature fluctuations in refrigerated vehicles. Therefore, tetradecane was packed and placed on the top, bottom or both sides of meat in the package. Thereafter, the meat and tetradecane-containing packages were cooled down to 3 °C and then exposed to the two incubation temperatures of 12.5 and 30 °C while meat temperature was recorded using a K-type thermocouple. Hardness and drip loss were also examined as two important meat quality attributes. Temperature-time plots showed that where tetradecane was placed had a significant effect on maintaining meat temperature during incubation at 12.5 °C but that using the phase change material at a temperature of 30 °C had no effect on delaying the rise in meat temperature. This is while the placement of tetradecane at bottom of meat could significantly decrease weight loss during exposure to room temperature. Based on the results, designated package containing tetradecane can effectively prevents from meat temperature rise by about 2 h while maintaining meat quality.

Arjenaki, N. O., Soltanizadeh, N., & Hamdami, N. (2019). Designing an active phase change material package for thermal and qualitative protection of meat. Food Packaging and Shelf Life, 21, 100362.