SOME ASPECTS REGARDING THE STORAGE OF FOODSTUFFS IN FOOD PROFILE UNITS

Doina Leonte, C. Leonte

Abstract
    Foods may undergo mechanical, chemical or microbiological changes in all stages of the food chain, under the action of various factors.
    This study follows how food is stored in a unit where food is marketed and in a unit where food is prepared and served. During storage, foods undergo a number of phenomena and transformations. These occur because the foodstuffs have a relative stability over time, influenced by internal (structural) and external factors, which can modify their fundamental properties, through processes of degradation, alteration, chemical or microbiological contamination, impurities with foreign substances, etc.
    The perishability of food can be determined by a variety of causes, including:
      - breathing (in plant products);
      - evaporation (meat and meat preparations, cheeses, soaps, etc.);
      - volatilization (for alcoholic beverages);
      - Fragmentation (in cheeses, flours, dehydrated vegetables and fruits, flours);
      - the diffusion of water or fat through packaging (cheeses, fats, halva, etc.);
      - mold (vegetable products, etc.);
      - cutting at sales operations (cheeses, salami, etc.);
      - agglomeration (ex: milk powder);
      - breaking and spilling (liquid products packed in glass containers, eggs, etc.)
      - impregnation (soaking) of certain types of packaging (eg textile bags) with products in powdered state (flour, wheat, sugar, etc.).
   Considering these, in any type of unit with food profile, special attention is paid to the way in which food is stored, both raw materials and finished products.
   The current research highlights how in two units with food profile the food is stored taking into account the degree of food perishability.