Food products thermal stress: a temperature conrtolled climate room for simulations and tests of the shipping conditions

Abstract: Nowadays the control of manufacturing and shipment environmental conditions represents a critical aspect to ensure high standards of safety and quality to the products in many inbound and outbound production and distribution processes, especially in the food industry. Many different variables can provide a relevant impact on the final conditions experienced by the client/consumer: vibrations, relative humidity, light exposure, temperature, etc.. In this context, the temperature represents a significant parameter in a wide range of different areas, e.g. medical and pharmaceutical, food and beverages, energetic, chemistry, etc…, and can cause, whether not monitored, an irreversible degradation of the chemical and physical characteristics of the product. The aim of this paper is to describe the realization of an experimental temperature controlled climate room developed to perform thermal stress simulations that allow to point out the impact of temperature changes on physical and quality conditions of final products. Hardware architecture, components and the closed-loop automatic control algorithm of the designed mechatronic plant will be described giving full details about it performances and possible range of applicability. Finally, a case studiy considering a typical Italian foodstuff is illustrated in order to exemplify the climate room working behaviour and potentiality.