FACULTY OF APPLIED ECONOMICS DISSERTATION The impact of vibrations, shocks, and temperature during distribution on the flavor quality of bottled beer THESIS SUBMITTED IN ORDER TO OBTAIN THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR IN APPLIED ECONOMICS Author: Supervisors: Alexander Paternoster Prof. dr. Johan Braet Prof. dr. Johan Springael June 22, 2018 Alexander Paternoster, Ph.D. dissertation Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by questioning answers. – Bernard Haisch – 2 Alexander Paternoster, Ph.D. dissertation Publications The following publications are included in parts or in extended version in this thesis: Paternoster A, Van Camp J, Vanlanduit S, Weeren A, Springael J, Braet J. The performance of beer packaging: Vibration damping and thermal insulation. Food Packaging and Shelf Life 2017;11:91- 97. doi:10.1016/j.fpsl.2017.01.004. Paternoster A, Vanlanduit S, Springael J, Braet J. Measurement and analysis of vibration and shock levels for truck transport in Belgium with respect to packaged beer during transit. Food Packaging and Shelf Life 2018;15:134-143. doi:10.1016/j.fpsl.2017.12.007. Paternoster A, Vanlanduit S, Springael J, Braet J. Vibration and shock analysis of specific events during truck and train transport of food products. Food Packaging and Shelf Life 2018;15:95-104. Furthermore, the following papers are in the publication process, not yet submitted, or outside the scope of this thesis: Springael J, Paternoster A, Braet J. Reducing postharvest losses of apples: Optimal transport routing (while minimizing total costs). Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 2018;146:136- 144. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2018.02.007. Paternoster A, Jaskula-Goiris B, De Causmaecker B, Springael J, Braet J, De Rouck G, De Cooman L, Vanlanduit S. The Influence of the Interaction between Vibrations and Temperature, Simulating Transport, on the Flavor Quality of Beer. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (paper under review) ; 2018. Paternoster, A., Jaskula-Goiris, B., Perkisas, T., Springael, J., De Rouck, G., De Cooman, L., Braet, J. The influence of temperature and time on the sensorial quality of lager beer – simulating the Overall Aging Score (OAS). Journal of Food Quality and Preference (paper not yet submitted) ; 2018. Paternoster A, Jaskula-Goiris B, Buyse J, Perkisas T, Springael J, Braet J, De Rouck G, De Cooman L. The relation between beer flavor instability, the preference & the drinkability of fresh over aged beer. Journal of Food Quality and Preference (paper not yet submitted) ; 2018. Jaskula-Goiris B, De Causmaecker B, De Rouck G, Aerts., G., Paternoster, A., Braet, J., De Cooman L. Influence of transport and storage conditions on beer quality and flavour stability. Journal of Institute of Brewing (paper accepted); 2018 3 Alexander Paternoster, Ph.D. dissertation Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Johan Braet. Johan probed my ambition to begin a Ph.D. with respect to the flavor stability problem of exported beer. His general intellect, enthusiasm and motivational skills helped me to bring this thesis to a successful end. Additionally, Johan proved to be a partner with whom I had countless discussions that made able to benchmark and validate multiple ideas, methodologies and interpretation of results. The same gratitude can be given to my supervisor, Johan Springael. Thank you for being the person I needed, the brainstorming sessions on the statistical analysis of the results, the many creative ideas I had and we further developed. Additionally, I am most grateful to work together with Steve Vanlanduit. Steve has a profound expertise in vibration analysis and helped me, not having prior knowledge and experience on working with vibrations, developing essential insights into the matter. Moreover, he taught me in a ‘crash course’ to operate shakers, install measurement devices, analyze vibrations and interpret vibration data. Steve is a charismatic and fantastic person, and his guidance was essential in this Ph.D. journey. I also would like to thank the members of the jury, for evaluating and assessing this dissertation, and for formulating many useful constructive remarks. The people with whom I worked together during the IWT/VIS brewers-project, Barbara, Brecht, Jasper, Gert, Luc, Guido and Karel, I would also like to express my gratefulness. While the methodology and the execution of ideas are attributed to my own efforts and determination, research is never performed by an individual. We were a strong research team: able to brainstorm, generate new experiments and ideas, validate findings, give presentations to the brewers, etc. It is essential to not underestimate the myriad of collaborations I was able to enjoy and for which I am grateful: Karel Vermeiren of brewery Haacht, Walter Oerlemans and Ben Haagdoren of NMBS Logistics, Nathalie Mandelings of brewery Het Anker, Patrick Gerits of brewery Cornelissen, Luk Dedene of Bosal, Mathias Mallentjer of Takeoff Antwerp, and many others. Also, André Boen was of major importance with respect to the technical support you gave me, i.e. developing a self-made shock device and shaker. I also would like to thank the thesis students I worked together with: Laurens Candau, Dorien Van Cappellen, Kobe Van Heddegem, Arnout de Munck, Vince Van Walleghem and Marieke Decraen. I am fortunate with the group of ENM colleagues as well for making the last couple of years such an enjoyable experience. Especially, Jaco, I am very grateful having you as a roomie. It was extremely nice to work together, have all those interesting discussions, motivational talks, and silly activities (e.g. coffee cup competition – While you were not exactly a match for me, I enjoyed the attempts you made to beat me… ). Also, I am grateful for having such nice close colleagues as Jelle, Heidi, Lenore, Jasmine, Daniel and Arie Weeren. Finally, my sincerest gratitude goes to my girlfriend, my friends and my family for supporting me during my Ph.D. journey. Thank you, Naomi, for being an amazing person, for your everlasting patience and your willingness to listen to my silly mathematical inspired talks. Thank you, mom and dad for believing in me and helping me becoming the person I am. Thank you, family and extra family for being such warm and loving people. You have meant a great deal for me over the past years. 4 Alexander Paternoster, Ph.D. dissertation Preface Belgian beer is renowned for its large variety in flavors and aromas, and excellent quality. Not only AB Inbev, the largest brewer in the world, but also the multiple small and authentic breweries that make these beers, are the symbol of the cultural heritage that represents Belgium. The increasing globalization and internationalization induce that these beers are not only available within, but also progressively outside the borders of Belgium. The export of Belgian beer has been rising by double digit numbers, year after year, starting from 2000. Nevertheless, there have been issues related to the exported beer: the flavor quality and stability of the beer is considerably lower when controlled in the last part of the supply chain. In other words, the beer that is exported, experiences flavor changes that are destructive and irreversible of nature. This doctoral thesis is dedicated to research the flavor stability and quality of the Belgian beers in the foreign markets. More specifically, the impact of the exposure to vibrations, shocks and temperature during the distribution of beer is studied. Since the study of the dissertation involved vibrations and shocks (physics), beer quality (chemistry) and economic feasibility studies (economics), the research combined multiple domains. This study is unique since the effect of transport vibrations on the quality of a fluid is investigated, in contrast to the literature of the mechanical damage of (food) products and product packaging. First, the vibrations, shocks and temperature patterns are studied to which bottled beer is exposed during transport to foreign countries and storage. The impact of different parameters was investigated: the type of transport, the packaging and the stacking of the crates on the pallet. Based on the previously generated information, experiments were designed in order to estimate the influence of the latter parameters on the flavor quality of bottled beer. In the previously formulated experiments, the beer quality was predominantly characterized by means of the concentrations of the chemical beer quality compounds. Also, taste experiments were designed and executed in order to investigate if the general consumer is able to distinguish fresh from aged beer, and to identify differences in the consumption behavior when consuming fresh related to aged beer. The objective of this study was to frame the problem of the beer flavor stability, and to offer a framework that provides information and insights for breweries that would like to invest in the quality of their beer. Additionally, the feasibility of refrigerated transports and collaboration in logistics was assessed. By means of surveys, models, and simulations, the research objectives were tested. Finally, a study was developed in which the feasibility of providing the breweries transport and storage simulations was researched. This service might be offered to breweries in order to help the industry providing the (foreign) markets beer of higher quality. In this Ph.D. dissertation, I hope to contribute to literature by providing research results and research methods.