Accelerated shelf-life testing of a ready-to-eat cereal

The shelf-life of ready-to-eat cereal is often limited by susceptibility to lipid oxidation. Lipid oxidation forms a number of compounds (e.g., hexanal) which contribute objectionable off-odors to the food. In order to assess the degree of lipid oxidation, an assay was validated that quantitates the concentration of hexanal in the headspace of packaged cereal. After the validation of the assay was completed, an accelerated shelf-life study was performed in order to determine the oxidative stability of a packaged cereal at room temperature. This task was carried out by analyzing cereal stored at temperatures above 23...