Effect of Different Initial pH on the Storage Characteristics and Shelf Life of Liquid Diet for Suckling and Weanling Piglets

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different initial pH on the storage characteristics and shelf life of liquid diet. 45 polypropylene bags were allotted to treatments 1, 2 and 3 on average, 100 g diet and 200 g water were placed into each polypropylene bag, food-grade DL-lactic acid was added to each bag at a rate of 0.0 mL in treatment 1, 1.2 mL in treatment 2 and 4.7 mL in treatment 3, air was artificially expelled from each bag prior to heat-sealing. All bags were placed into a cage, cooked with steam at 90°C for 30 min under normal pressure, then taken out and stored from day 0 to 60 at room temperature. Results indicated that liquid diet in treatment 3 achieved the highest total sensory scores, the pH value had a tendency to decrease and the bacteria count had a tendency to increase in the liquid diet with the advancing of storage time with the advancing of storage time, lowering the initial pH of liquid diet decreased the bacteria count, the AFB1 and ZEN concentrations and increased the starch gelatinization degree from day 30 to 60, liquid diet in treatment 3 had a lower (P<0.01) bacteria count and a higher (P<0.05) starch gelatinization degree at day 30 and 45 than liquid diet in treatment 1. In conclusion, lowering the initial pH of liquid diet with lactic acid to pH 4 could effectively improve the storage characteristics and shelf life of liquid diet.

Keywords

• initial pH
• storage characteristics
• shelf life
• liquid diet
• lactic acid