Estimation of storage time of yogurt with artificial neural network modeling

Changes in the physical, chemical, and microbiological structure of yogurt determine the storage and shelf life of the product. In this study, microbial counts and pH values of yogurt during storage were determined at d 1, 7, and 14. Simultaneously, image processing of yogurt was digitized by using a machine vision system (MVS) to determine color changes during storage, and the obtained data were modeled with an artificial neural network (ANN) for prediction of shelf life of set-type whole-fat and low-fat yogurts. The ANN models were developed using back-propagation networks with a single hidden layer and sigmoid activation functions. The input variables of the network were pH; total aerobic, yeast, mold, and coliform counts; and color analysis values measured by the machine vision system. The output variable was the storage time of the yogurt. The modeling results showed that there was excellent agreement between the experimental data and predicted values, with a high determination coefficient (R-2 = 0.9996) showing that the developed model was able to analyze nonlinear multivariant data with very good performance, fewer parameters, and shorter calculation time. The model might be an alternative method to control the expiration date of yogurt shown in labeling and provide consumers with a safer food supply.