Changes during Processing
The epoch making discovery of fire by human unleashed their innovative capabilities in many directions both beneficial and destructive yet the most important application that revolutionized the lifestyle of human beings and in no small measure contributed to their health and welfare is the thermal treatment of food.
Humans have learnt to cook, to broil, to steam, to bake, to roast, to fry, to smoke and to barbeque food on burning coal, wood or oil, transmitting heat through metal surface contact, by convection, by radiation, using steam or gas or fluids.
To these can be added in modern times, to pasteurize (UHT) treatments heating with infrared, microwave and ohmic heating.
Each of these treatments can transform raw food commodities into speciality appetizing products with distinctive texture, taste, flavour and aroma.
Along with these culinary inputs the food could be decontaminated of biohazards, such as pathogens, toxins, endogenous toxicants and anti-nutritional substances.
Its chewability and digestibility could be improved and unpalatable off taste and color eliminated or minimized.
Yet gradually some ill effects of processing on food compositions and wholesomeness started to come to light, for example the Maillard interaction between carbonyl and amino compounds and their subsequent cyclization and polymerization, caramelization reactions that lead to the formation of heterocyclic compounds, polycyclic aromatic molecules, nitrosamine and such other toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic molecules during processing.
Although these are known to be produced in trace quantities the consumer has become aware of the lurking danger.
Possible chronic cumulative effects are yet o be assessed. New analytical techniques with increased sensitivity and specificity are needed to monitor these molecules.
Changes during Processing
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption
Ostentation or conspicuous consumption, means some people’s desire to provide prominent visible evidence of their ability to afford luxury goods.
Status as value refers to the active manipulation of one’s own consumption behavior in order to influence others.
Status seeking may be understood as a response to a perceived gap between a present state and some ideal state.
This leads to a motivational state which is strongest among social groups chronically affected by status anxiety.
Dining in a celebrity chef’s restaurant may be motivated as much by the wish to be seemed at a fashionable venue as about the food.
Choosing consumption experiences to project the sort of image one wants to create is part of impression management.
In attribution theory, the causes of behavior can be ether dispositional or situational.
Attribution theory clearly status related consumption is situational motivated.
Food and drinks choices are means of signaling and re-enforcing, one’s status on a more or less ongoing basis, both within the family and in wider context.
Indeed, a cursory scan of the shopping trolleys of customers in a supermarket usually allows wide ranging inferences to be made about their status in society.
Status displays include what one does not consume as well as what one does, to the extent that avoidance products may become more important to status construction that the products one does consume.
Individuals may avoid certain supermarkets or manufacturer’s brands of food or they may boycott foods from some country in order to make a political point.
They may reject products from intensively reared animals on the grounds of animal cruelty and so on.
The motivational for specific consumption behaviors can change with time, so that’s a situationally motivated behavior can eventually become dispositionally motivated.
When this happens, consumption value ceases to be other-oriented and derives instead from the re-enforcement of self image.
For example, an odivdual may have become ociditioend to enjoying excellence in cosmuner products and may have stated to identify woth the lifestyle associated woth them.
Conspicuous consumption
Ostentation or conspicuous consumption, means some people’s desire to provide prominent visible evidence of their ability to afford luxury goods.
Status as value refers to the active manipulation of one’s own consumption behavior in order to influence others.
Status seeking may be understood as a response to a perceived gap between a present state and some ideal state.
This leads to a motivational state which is strongest among social groups chronically affected by status anxiety.
Dining in a celebrity chef’s restaurant may be motivated as much by the wish to be seemed at a fashionable venue as about the food.
Choosing consumption experiences to project the sort of image one wants to create is part of impression management.
In attribution theory, the causes of behavior can be ether dispositional or situational.
Attribution theory clearly status related consumption is situational motivated.
Food and drinks choices are means of signaling and re-enforcing, one’s status on a more or less ongoing basis, both within the family and in wider context.
Indeed, a cursory scan of the shopping trolleys of customers in a supermarket usually allows wide ranging inferences to be made about their status in society.
Status displays include what one does not consume as well as what one does, to the extent that avoidance products may become more important to status construction that the products one does consume.
Individuals may avoid certain supermarkets or manufacturer’s brands of food or they may boycott foods from some country in order to make a political point.
They may reject products from intensively reared animals on the grounds of animal cruelty and so on.
The motivational for specific consumption behaviors can change with time, so that’s a situationally motivated behavior can eventually become dispositionally motivated.
When this happens, consumption value ceases to be other-oriented and derives instead from the re-enforcement of self image.
For example, an odivdual may have become ociditioend to enjoying excellence in cosmuner products and may have stated to identify woth the lifestyle associated woth them.
Conspicuous consumption
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sensory Testing
Sensory Testing
Sensory testing utilizes one or more of the five senses to evaluate foods.
Taste panels, comprising groups of people, taste specific food samples under controlled conditions and evaluate them in different ways depending on the particular sensory test being conducted.
This is the only type of testing that can measure consumer preference and acceptability.
When it comes to public opinion of a product, there is no substitute for tasting by individual consumers.
In addition to a taste –panel evaluation, objective tests can be established that correlate with sensory testing, which give an indication of consumer acceptability, but this may not always be sufficient.
In the development of new foods or when changing an existing product, it is necessary to determine consumer acceptance directly and objective testing is not sufficient, even though it may be a reliable, objective indication of food quality.
Sensory methods may be used to determine:
*Whether foods differ in taste, odor, juiciness, tenderness, texture and so on.
*To what extend food differ
*To ascertain consumer preferences and to determine whether a certain food is acceptable to a specific consumer group.
Three types of sensory testing are commonly used, each with different goal.
Discrimination or difference tests are design to determine whether there is a difference between products, descriptive tests determine the extent of difference in specific sensory characteristics and affective or acceptance/preference tests determine how well the products are liked or which products are preferred.
There are important differences between these types of tests. It is important to select the appropriate type of test so that the results obtained are able to answer the question being asked about the products and are useful to the manufacturer or product developer.
The appropriate tests must be used under suitable conditions in order for results to be interpreted correctly.
All testing must be carried out under controlled conditions, with controlled lighting, sound (no noise), and temperature to minimize distractions and other adverse psychological factors.
Sensory Testing
Sensory testing utilizes one or more of the five senses to evaluate foods.
Taste panels, comprising groups of people, taste specific food samples under controlled conditions and evaluate them in different ways depending on the particular sensory test being conducted.
This is the only type of testing that can measure consumer preference and acceptability.
When it comes to public opinion of a product, there is no substitute for tasting by individual consumers.
In addition to a taste –panel evaluation, objective tests can be established that correlate with sensory testing, which give an indication of consumer acceptability, but this may not always be sufficient.
In the development of new foods or when changing an existing product, it is necessary to determine consumer acceptance directly and objective testing is not sufficient, even though it may be a reliable, objective indication of food quality.
Sensory methods may be used to determine:
*Whether foods differ in taste, odor, juiciness, tenderness, texture and so on.
*To what extend food differ
*To ascertain consumer preferences and to determine whether a certain food is acceptable to a specific consumer group.
Three types of sensory testing are commonly used, each with different goal.
Discrimination or difference tests are design to determine whether there is a difference between products, descriptive tests determine the extent of difference in specific sensory characteristics and affective or acceptance/preference tests determine how well the products are liked or which products are preferred.
There are important differences between these types of tests. It is important to select the appropriate type of test so that the results obtained are able to answer the question being asked about the products and are useful to the manufacturer or product developer.
The appropriate tests must be used under suitable conditions in order for results to be interpreted correctly.
All testing must be carried out under controlled conditions, with controlled lighting, sound (no noise), and temperature to minimize distractions and other adverse psychological factors.
Sensory Testing
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