Loss of Quality
Just as important as selecting for food quality is the prevention of the loss of quality. The most pervasive problems are probably control of staling and prevention of moisture migration.
Staling as a process is well understood and much progress has been made in understanding how to delay the staling process in wheat flours. However, cooked rice stales and becomes hard within 24 hrs of cooking; arresting the staling process would allow cooked rice of good quality and practicable shelf life to be offered.
Much remains to be understood to control staling so that it can either be stopped when it has reached as desired level or completely inhibited.
Moisture migration limits the shelf life of many products where a high moisture region is in contact with a low moisture region. The manufacturer is unable to give consumer the experience of a fresh baked product.
The pastry is designed to be hard and brittle to contrast with the moist and malleable meat content. Around the meat, a high moisture jelly is injected after baking. Within a few days, moisture migrates from the jelly into the pastry and the case becomes soft, losing flavor and texture contrast with the filling.
Loss of Quality
