FOOD STABILITY WHEN USED IN MY “DIY FROZEN FOOD FEEDER”

Daniel@R2R

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Cool info. I'll follow.
 
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Rick Mathew

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Cool info. I'll follow.

Thank...I will keep posing as new info develops...Important to me because what and how we feed all these wonderful animals can impact their health and wellbeing. Since I feed mostly frozen food, how I handle it appears to be important.
 

ebushrow

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Many of you have asked me a very good question in my DIY post of “The Frozen Food Feeder” (Here is the link https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-frozen-food-feeder.279232/ ) about the stability of the food over time….will it go bad….will it break down. You got me to thinking. Are my assumptions correct or am I feeding my fish and corals “bad” food? I could not find any relevant posts that had any data, just mostly anecdotal observations. (Some of you might be able to point me in the right direction).So I decided to make some phone calls and do some digging for some relative data on the stability of the food at different temperatures. My sister-in-law is a clinical pathologist so I reached out to her. She pointed me in the direction of the frozen food industry. Her Job consisted of a lot of different kinds of tissue preservation so she had a lot of insight into the matter. Without troubling you with all of the details, I found these two articles very helpful in understanding the issue. (If math scares you you may not want to look at these :eek:)

http://www.fao.org/docrep/V7180E/V7180e07.htm

https://seagrant.uaf.edu/lib/asg/30/ASG-30.pdf

From these two articles I calculated what is referred to as “Equivalent Days on Ice” time at my storage temperature of 30⁰-31⁰ F and subtracted that from the “Maximum Shelf Life of Shrimp at 32⁰ F on Ice”( 5 Days) to find my “Remaining Shelf Life” . This shelf life is based on fitness for human consumption, so I had to make the assumption that it would hold true for my fish…not sure this is totally valid.

I found my Remaining Shelf Life was in a safe range for usage given 5 days is the maximum time I keep a batch in the feeder. My calculations give me about 12-24 hours of extra shelf life at my holding temperatures. She (my sister-in-law) also recommended an experiment that I can do to validate the assumptions and calculations, which I will do later.

I have read a number of posts on various websites that say that people thaw the frozen food and then store it in the frig for over a week. The average temperature of a refrigerator is between 32 to 40⁰ F. That means the food is approximately 2-10 days past its useful shelf life. When you read the articles you will see that the changes in remaining shelf life are not linear with temperature which means the spoilage is two times as fast as you go from 32⁰-40⁰ F


Well that’s probably enough for now. I appreciate all of you questions. It motivated me to dig into the data. Not sure it is 100% applicable but it is better than what I had before and I am still in the process of exploring the subject…Will keep you posted as I do my experiment and a bit more digging, but at least it is a move in the right direction.

Thanks

Rick

PS If any of you can point me to additional information that could be used it would be appreciated.
Hi Rick...did you think about reaching out to one of the big vendors like rods or larrys? They may have done this already due to determining freeze/thaw times and decomposition. I have spoken to Rod at Rod's Food ( who is a really nice guy and easy to talk with) and I would guess he would be more than willing to help if he can. I just know that the 2 vendors keep strict temperatures of food and the shelf life is important to them.
 
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Rick Mathew

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Hi Rick...did you think about reaching out to one of the big vendors like rods or larrys? They may have done this already due to determining freeze/thaw times and decomposition. I have spoken to Rod at Rod's Food ( who is a really nice guy and easy to talk with) and I would guess he would be more than willing to help if he can. I just know that the 2 vendors keep strict temperatures of food and the shelf life is important to them.

Actually I did not think of that....great idea...this is the great aspect of R2R...it is like having multiple brains!:)
 

chefjpaul

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I just go with how I utilize food in the restaurant, same for my fish.

Health Department Standard:
Freezer - fridge (x2) days - garbage.

I never thaw in water, expecially fish products.
 

Lionfish Lair

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That is an idea worth exploring...thank. Do you think a citric acid solution might do the trick?

Yes, I do. I have data for this as well and will be sure to get it to you when I get home. So, not only would it help preserve the shelf life of the food, it would also add to the nutritional profile of your food.
 
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Rick Mathew

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Yes, I do. I have data for this as well and will be sure to get it to you when I get home. So, not only would it help preserve the shelf life of the food, it would also add to the nutritional profile of your food.

Looking forward to your return...enjoy your trip
 
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Rick Mathew

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Looking forward to your return...enjoy your trip
Rick, I have a lot of research data about this that you may be looking for, yet I won't be back in the country until the end of January. If you could send me a little reminder, I can get you all sorts of stuff.[/QU
Rick, I have a lot of research data about this that you may be looking for, yet I won't be back in the country until the end of January. If you could send me a little reminder, I can get you all sorts of stuff.

Are you back from your trip yet....would love to see some of the data you have with regard to food stability...esp as it relates to the use of citric acid as a stabilizer...looking forward to it


Thanks

Rick
 

Lionfish Lair

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Yes, I'm home. I'm glad you pinged me via PM, as I missed this post. I've been gathering up stuff for a lionfish article and oxidation is a huge deal with the fatty foods preds like mine are often offered. Give me a week to organize some research and see what I can find that would be useful to you. Often times I can not share studies in their entirety due to the legalities of sharing journal articles.
 
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Rick Mathew

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Yes, I'm home. I'm glad you pinged me via PM, as I missed this post. I've been gathering up stuff for a lionfish article and oxidation is a huge deal with the fatty foods preds like mine are often offered. Give me a week to organize some research and see what I can find that would be useful to you. Often times I can not share studies in their entirety due to the legalities of sharing journal articles.
Awesome ... Completely understand about the legal stuff...Deal with that all the time..What ever you can share would be appreciated

Rick
 

DBR_Reef

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Hey Rick,
I started dosing refrigerated food last year, and I have to say, getting the preservative mixture right so that the food does not degrade or go bad is a PITA. I'm not quite ready to throw my recipe out there yet, but in theory my food should last months. Because I am not a food scientist I have basically maxed out the use of the needed preservatives, which is not ideal if you are making huge quantities, but is economical on our scale. Testing is not easy, as with each iteration I have to wait weeks for results. If you would like a helpful chapter from a reference book on the subject, feel free to pm me with you email and I will send you a pdf. It goes over the reactions and the preservatives in the clearest way I have found. I didn't want you giving up on your feeder just because you couldn't get the food right :)
 

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