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The aim of this study was to reproduce quality changes occurring in shelf‐stable pudding over 368 days, in less than 100 days by using one or more accelerating factors. The effect of headspace volume, packaging permeability, combination of packaging permeability and light, iron, and heat treatment on the evolution of pudding quality during storage was studied at the molecular and macroscopic levels. For control samples, an increase in the consistency, apparent viscosity, hysteresis area, G'‐G" crossover and yellowness was observed throughout storage. The rheology, pH, and colorimetric measurements failed to discriminate samples subjected to different accelerating factors from the control ones. Regarding the shapes of tryptophan and riboflavin emission spectra, samples with high permeability to oxygen and exposed to light were the most deteriorated, followed by those supplemented with iron or subjected to high heat treatment. However, iron and heat treatment trials were found to be the most suitable parameters to accelerate aging of pudding. Finally, both, headspace volume or packaging permeability did not affect the aging of acidic pudding samples. Practical applications Severe heat treatment or the addition of iron in the pudding recipe could be used as suitable parameters to accelerate shelf‐stable acidic pudding aging. Fluorescence spectroscopy technique showed a high discrimination power and can be applied for online monitoring of shelf‐stable dairy desserts quality, as it requires no preparation of the sample.

BACKGROUND Accelerated shelf life tests have been conducted on very few shelf‐stable products. The aim of this study was to reproduce quality changes occurring in neutral pudding packed in retort pouches over a one‐year storage period at room temperature in approximately 100 days. The influence of headspace volume, packaging permeability, combination of packaging permeability and light, iron and copper on the quality changes of pudding throughout storage was investigated at the molecular and macroscopic scales. Analyses were performed from day 15 to 368 for control samples and from day 15 to 99 for pudding samples where one or more accelerating factors were applied. RESULTS Retort pouches enriched with iron or copper showed similar trends to control pouches regarding changes in rheological, pH and color parameters during storage. These catalysts could be used as accelerating factors for the last‐mentioned parameters. Riboflavin and tryptophan fluorescence spectra recorded on samples supplemented with iron aged 99 days were the most similar to those of control pudding samples aged 368 days. Neither the headspace volume nor the packaging permeability was found to affect the aging of neutral pudding samples. CONCLUSION Samples supplemented with iron were the most appropriate to accelerate the aging of neutral pudding. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry