Food Flavors & Quality - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Food Flavors & Quality

We hold certain expectations for food. Brainstorm food expectations with partner.

Food Expectations

1.

Color

– quality factor

Relates to quality and/or perceived quality (ex: white and orange carrots = same taste/quality) We expect meat to be redBananas to be yellow – not brown!Naturally occurring pigments, freshness, oxidation (air), etc. affect food color

Food Expectations

2. Texture

– quality factor

Gum to be chewy

Crackers to be crispRefers to qualities felt with fingers, tongue & teethChanges in texture usually due to moisture status

Food Expectations

3. Size & shape

– quality factor

Expect foods to have certain sizes & shapes

Easily measuredFruits & vegetables graded by size & shapes

Food Expectations

4

. Taste

– quality factor

Expect foods to have certain taste5 different tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami aka savory) Ex: milk to be lightly sweet not sour

* Each of the papillae (finger like projections or receptacles) contain many taste buds.

* Most taste buds are on the sides, back, and tip of your tongue.

How Taste Work

Tiny finger

-like structures on

papillae called

microvilli with hundreds of receptors on them (areas on the cell wall that can tell if specific chemicals are near them) Send signals to the brain

to acknowledge

the specific taste and store it

to memory

The five different

tastes (

sweet, salty, bitter, sour,

umami aka savory)

affect the taste

receptors

Scientific Controversy on Taste Buds… are certain areas more strong than others?

View 1 - taste buds help perceive flavor – certain areas of tongue are more sensitive to certain flavors

View 2 – areas disproven

Most areas of the tongue can taste

each of the

five tastes

Taste Lab

Food Expectations

5. Smell

– quality factor

Expect foods to have certain smell or no smell

Rancid foods occur when fat is oxidized and can lead to a sour or un-fresh smell Ex: molding bread Consumers anticipate a smell prior to a taste

How Smell Works

Flavor = The

combination of pure taste and smell (olfaction)

Humans are usually able to distinguish over 4,000 scents, but some people are able to smell 10,000 different odor molecules

Used primarily for safety and protection from outside dangers (leaking gas, rotten food, etc.

How Smell Works

Lifesaver Activity

Questions/ Comments on Food Expectations?

Sensory Science

Part of food science

Dedicated to finding ways to help humans accurately describe the flavors & other sensory properties of food (scent)

Flavor – quality factor

People differ in preferences

Measure Taste

Best method – use taste panels – professionals or customers

Other evaluation methods used – chemical & mechanical

Quality Standards

Help ensure food quality

Types

Research – setup by company

Trade – setup by members of an industryGovernment – some mandatory, some optionalAll help to provide common language for all involvedQuality standards by USDAhttp://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/standards

Cheese Food Quality Assessment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT-

5sEDse3E

Quality Control

Manufacturing plants usually have some type of internal, formal, quality control

Inspection duties

Lab tests

Oversee sanitationGuide research & development

Sensory Bias

Humans avoid flavors after paired with gastric illness

All senses are change detectors

so after continuous exposure

receptors stop respondingHumans biased by opinion/others easilyPast assumptions, commentsLighting, sound, temperaturePrefer first samples over last – only handle 4-5 samples at a time

Sensory Taste Test

– Market Research

This is similar to how consumers would do a taste test for a company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVsglhn-

h3Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7lw_vhxtNchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0TsqVKmjAw

Perform your blind taste test with DETAILED sensory evaluations