Food animal freshness/degree of maturation evaluating device, and freshness/degree of maturation evaluating method

A freshness/degree of maturation evaluating device for evaluating a freshness and/or a degree of maturation of a food animal, the freshness/degree of maturation evaluating device comprising:

• a temperature parameter calculation unit that calculates a temperature parameter regarding a storage time and a temperature in an arbitrary area inside the food animal, the parameter being based on the temperature in the arbitrary area inside the food animal, determined by the storage time and an unsteady heat conduction equation;
• a rate constant parameter calculation unit that calculates a rate constant parameter regarding sequential decomposition reactions of various adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-associated compounds contained in the food animal, the parameter being set based on rate constants in the food animal determined by using a relation based on the storage time of the food animal and measured values of ATP-associated compound concentrations;
• an ATP-associated compound concentration calculation unit that calculates the ATP-associated compound concentrations by a sequential decomposition reaction calculation model using the temperature parameter and the rate constant parameter;
• a freshness/degree of maturation evaluation unit that computes a freshness indicator K value and/or an FI value from the ATP-associated compound concentrations, and
• a freshness/degree of maturation assessment unit that computes an optimized storage temperature for the food animal based on the K value and/or FI value, and automatically inputs the optimized storage temperature as a first initial settings value for transportation conditions.