Predicting the shelf life of milk powder

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to gain an understanding of the factors that influence the degradation of bags of milk powder when they are shipped around the world. We discuss two approaches, mathematical modelling and experimental design. We model the spatial and temporal variation of humidity, oxygen and temperature and its effect on the shelf life of the bags of milk powder. We show that the diffusion of these quantities is so rapid that they can be assumed to be uniform throughout the bags. This justifies the simplification of the model to the form of a system of ordinary differential equations involving time. The experimental design discussed in this paper involves a statistical approach to measuring the different factors that influence the degradation of milk powder over time.