Color of foods

People associate certain colors with certain flavors, and the color of food can influence the perceived flavor in anything from candy to wine. Consumers perceive that yellow goes with “lemon” and pink goes with “grapefruit.”

Color, a primary indicator of maturity of ripeness, is derived from the pigments found in the product. Loss of the green pigment chlorophyll to unmask yellow carotenoids is a desirable part of the ripening process in many fruits, such as peaches and yellow cultivars of apples.

Red fruits and vegetables are colored by natural plant pigments called “lycopene” or “anthocyanins.” Lycopene in tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit, for example, may help reduce risk of several types of cancer, especially prostate cancer.

Other pigments of important in fruits and vegetables: the red pigment in tomatoes and watermelon: the betacyanins, the red and yellow pigments in beets; and the anthocyanins, the reds, blues, and purples of many fruits and vegetables, including apples, blueberries, and red cabbage. Browning on these products is primarily due to an enzymatic reaction that occurs in response to rupture of the cell membranes.

Green fruits and vegetables are colored by natural plant pigment called “chlorophyll.” Some members of the green group, including spinach and other dark leafy greens, green peppers, peas, cucumber and celery, contain lutein. Lutein works with another chemical, zeaxanthin, found in corn, red peppers, oranges, grapes and egg yolks to help keep eyes healthy.

Color, in a quantitative sense, has been shown to be able to replace sugar and still maintain sweetness perception in flavored foods. It interferes with judgments of flavor intensity and identification and in so doing has been shown to dramatically influence the pleasantness and acceptability of foods.
Color of foods

Loss of Quality

Loss of Quality
Just as important as selecting for food quality is the prevention of the loss of quality. The most pervasive problems are probably control of staling and prevention of moisture migration.

Staling as a process is well understood and much progress has been made in understanding how to delay the staling process in wheat flours. However, cooked rice stales and becomes hard within 24 hrs of cooking; arresting the staling process would allow cooked rice of good quality and practicable shelf life to be offered.

Much remains to be understood to control staling so that it can either be stopped when it has reached as desired level or completely inhibited.

Moisture migration limits the shelf life of many products where a high moisture region is in contact with a low moisture region. The manufacturer is unable to give consumer the experience of a fresh baked product.

The pastry is designed to be hard and brittle to contrast with the moist and malleable meat content. Around the meat, a high moisture jelly is injected after baking. Within a few days, moisture migrates from the jelly into the pastry and the case becomes soft, losing flavor and texture contrast with the filling.
Loss of Quality

Food Contaminants

During their journey from farm to consumer food commodities are likely to be exposed to a multitude of hazards that may lead to contamination by dust, dirt weeds, mechanical injury, physicochemical changes accelerated by heat, light, metal ions, contamination or spoilage due to microorganisms insects and rodents or biochemical changes brought about by enzymes that may be endogenous or contributed by the invading biological agents.

Food commodities are thus likely to undergo significant alteration. Even though the consumer reference is undoubtedly for farm fresh foods and farmers and traders have been striving to keep up farm fresh image of food commodities, the question remains how fresh?

Amongst food grains particularly oilseeds, which are seeds high in essential oils, the entry of weed seeds at harvest, especially if harvesting is mechanical, is a serious contamination of the weed seeds harbor toxicants like Crotolaria, Datura and Argemone for instance.

Not only fruits and vegetables but even seeds may undergo mechanical damage. In the case of high moisture commodities, this will most likely be followed by microbial infections and spoilage.

In fat rich commodities such as oilseeds and nuts, oxidative chemical changes are most likely to be catalyzed by exposure to air, elevated temperature, humidity, light and metal salt contaminants leading to rancidity.

Such oxidative reactions affect essential oils and oil bearing material adversely.

Microbial spoilage of foods and health hazards to consumers through bacterial and fungal toxins and enteric disease are especially associated with high moisture foods, animal foods in particular.
Moisture pick-up or loss depending on the relative humidity (RH) is another change that significantly affects the quality.

Many foods undergo staling on storage: bread and coffee are good examples. In many countries, where feasible, specifications have been laid down for food commodities indicating the tolerances with respect to changes to their quality.
Food Contaminants

Recognition of Food Safety and Food Quality

Recognition of Food Safety and Food Quality
The international recognition of systems for safety and for food quality management has resulted in the need to adopt terminology that can be interpreted in a uniform and consistent manner.

The systems for food safety and for quality management that have been adopted by international organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have been based on fundamental principles developed by recognized experts or recognized scientific or professional organizations.

As a result, there is now standardized vocabulary in the field of food quality assurance.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.

The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

International Organization for Standardization ISO is the world largest standards developing organization.

Between 1947 and the present day, ISO has published more than 17500 International Standards, ranging from standards for activities such as agriculture and construction, through mechanical engineering, to medical devices, to the newest information technology developments.
Recognition of Food Safety and Food Quality

Total Quality Management

The Role of Total Quality Management
An effective sanitation program is a segment of total quality management (TQM), which must be applied to all aspects of the operations within an organization.

Total quality management applies the “right first time” approach. The most critical aspect of TQM is food safety. Thus sanitation is an important segment of TQM.

The successful implementation of TQM requires that management and production workers be motivated to improve product acceptability.

Furthermore, all involved must understand the TQM concept and possess skills to maker the program successful.

Quality Assurance for Effective Sanitation
Quality is the degree of acceptability. Component characteristics of quality are both measurable and controllable.

A sanitation Quality Assurance program can achieve the following goals:

• Identify raw material suppliers that provide a consistent and wholesome product
• Make possible stricter sanitary procedures in processing to achieve a safer product, within given tolerances
• Segregate raw materials on the basis of microbial quality to allow the greatest value at the lowest price.
  

By tradition, the food industry has applied quality assurance principles to ensure effective sanitation practices, among them, inspection of the production area and equipment for cleanliness.

If evidence of poor cleanup is reported, necessary action is taken to correct the problem.

More sophisticated operations frequently incorporate use of a daily sanitation survey with appropriate checks and forms. Visual inspection should include more than a superficial examination, because a film buildup that can harbor spoilage and food poisoning microorganisms can occur on equipment.
Total Quality Management

Food, Quality, Value and Consumer

Food, Quality, Value and Consumer
Conceptually, “quality” and “value” lie at the interface between the consumers mind processes and the object of the external world. Both are concerned with a consumer and an object and with interaction taking place between them.

Food value is slanted more towards the consumer and food quality towards the food, but there is an overlap. This interface, although critical is only one of several that are relevant to an understanding of consumer behavior in the area of food quality.

“Value” and the associated concept of “value”, and “consumer behavior” draw on several academic disciplines, both in the social and the natural sciences, for their theoretical underpinnings; yet there is no unified view of food quality and the consumer.

In fact, there is often a distinct lack of understanding, which tends to prevent effective communication between food professionals raised in the different academic traditions, and which can lead to difficulties in the business environment.

Food companies must understand the mental process that will cause consumers to develop perception of the finished products. Such perceptions engage with consumers’ motivational systems and therefore directly affect choices and other food related behavior.

As for marketing and communication strategies for novel foods and technologies, it is crucial that proper account is taken of the beliefs and attitudes of both consumers and the wider community.

Consumers are the final link of food supply chains, i.e., they are the end users. This does not mean that, in each case, the food shopper is the person who will consumes the food in the sense of eating it. For example, foods may be bought for other family or household members and as gifts.
Food, Quality, Value and Consumer

Food Contamination

Food Contamination
Because the same nutrients in foods are also the same nutrients microbes need for their growth, food spoilage is inevitable. However, most infectious agents do not multiply on foods, but use them as a vector to gain entrance to the human body.

Food Poisoning results from many sources. Some of them include the following: Bacillus cereus, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Yersinia enterocolitica. Infection from them usually causes the same basic symptoms of acute gastroenteritis, abdominal discomfort and pain, and diarrhea, but symptoms vary -- from mild gastric distress to death -- depending on the type of bacterial infection. Transmission is usually passed via the fecal/oral route with the ingestion of the pathogen on contaminated food.

Foodborne diseases affects roughly seventy-six million people each year in the US, which is more common and deadlier than bacterial meningitis, toxic shock syndrome, and the flesh-eating strep combined. Typical bacteria that cause most of the epidemics include Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Shigella. More recently, such mutant strains as Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Cyclospora cayetanensis, and caliciviruses are becoming more commonplace.

Water contamination is usually because of the presence of three bacteria and are indicators of fecal contamination -- E. coli, Clostridium perfringens, and enterococci. In the case of water contamination by Klebsiella pneumoniae, it should not be assumed that the contamination came from a fecal source. The bacterium is also found in soil and runoff can contaminate water.

Meat held at room temperature often invites bacteria from the family Enterobacteriaceae. This also happens with strains of Staphylococci, micrococci, and aerobic Gram-positive spore-forming bacilli. Refrigeration suppresses these microbes, but can allow the growth of such other organisms as pseudomonas. Eating raw meats, fish, and milk is becoming more of a hazard and should be avoided. Suspect, too, are salads prepared in restaurants where meats and vegetables share a common surface during preparation.

Color can often indicate the type of microbe involved in the spoilage:

• Black spots on meat are the result of Cladosporium species.
• White spots are from Sporotrichum carnis.
• Yellow or green spots form as a result of the Penicillium species.
• A rainbow effect, often seen on bacon and fish, is caused by a spoilage bacteria known as Photobacteria that can break down ATP to produce visible light. After a couple of days, this bacterium can grow sufficiently to enable raw fish to glow in the dark!
  

Spoiled milk, as opposed to fermented products, is caused by such capsulated organisms as Lactococcus cremoris or Enterobacter aerogenes, leaving the milk to form unpleasant strands. Various strains of clostridium can also cause milk to spoil. Contaminated ice cream in Minnesota in 1994 caused an estimated quarter of a million people to become ill. Despite this, it took a full three months before the Salmonella-type bacterium was tracked down and appropriate action taken. This is not an inspiring record designed to instill confidence in the public health system. On the other hand, when a contaminant is suspected, much food is wasted in an effort to track down a few questionable samples.


Stores of rotten black potatoes that turn into an oozing mess are the result of an Erwinia contamination.


A liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, can be contracted by humans, mainly from eating watercress harvested from beds where infected snails live.

Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive bacillus capable of growing at temperatures of 0°C (32°F) and lower. It is relatively heat-resistant, having been isolated from pasteurized products. Another reason for it being an easy microbe to be passed on is its ability to remain on the hands for long periods of time -- at least eight hours -- and is not easily removed by conventional handwashing.

Foods associated with this microbe are soft cheeses, pates, and raw vegetable dishes. Pre-cut foods are most at risk for developing listeria contamination. Most people remain relatively unaffected, except for pregnant women and newborns, where often fatal cases of meningitis and/or septicemia develop.

Almost half of all food poisonings in Japan are caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a marine bacterium found off the coast there, as well as in America and southwest England. Almost all food poisonings have been the result of undercooked fish. Such was the case in an air flight from Hong Kong to the UK, where lobster salad was served. Fortunately, the new crew, picked up in India enroute, did not eat any of the salad as all others aboard were ill by the time the flight ended. Obviously, the incubation period is relatively short -- the time it took to fly from Hong Kong to the UK.
Food Contamination

What are allergens?

What are allergens?
Allergens are substances that cause the immune system to trigger and act against itself. Normally, this condition happens when foreign bodies such as bacteria enter the human body. However, innocent and harmless bodies (proteins) such as pollen, peanuts, milk, penicillin may not be recognized by the immune system and continue to function as a harmful foreign body. Yet, wasps and other insects produce allergens as a defense mechanism.

A food allergy is triggered when natural substance is mistaken for a hostile invader, causing immune systems to mobilize to repel the invader. F00d allergies are mediated by IgE antibodies to protein-a characteristic shared with other allergens such as those present in hay fever (an acute allergic nasal condition) an wasp-sting reactions. The severity of food allergy symptoms varies from life threatening reactions when exposed to food proteins that are allergens to which they are sensitized, to less severe reactions such as skin irritation and breathing difficulties. Since no cure is available for food allergies. Avoidance is the only preventive measure available to allergic consumers.
What are allergens?

Quality Assurance and Sanitation Programs in Food Industry

Quality Assurance and Sanitation Programs in Food Industry
Since the late 1970s, the food industry has emphasized an organized sanitation program that monitors the microbiology of raw ingredients in production plants and the wholesomeness and safety of the finished products, in an effort to maintain or upgrade the acceptability of its food products.

As consumers become better informed and more sophisticated, it is even more vital for the food industry to develop an effective quality assurance (QA) and sanitation program. The efforts of regulatory agencies in the field of sanitation and food microbiology have been responsible for the food industry’s implementation of voluntary quality assurance programs. Food scientists have also had a positive impact on quality assurance programs because many of these professionals have joined various companies in the food industry. Their efforts have been instrumental in the adoption and/or upgrading of quality assurance programs for the organizations they represent.

In its initial stages, quality assurance was primarily a quality control function, acting as an arm of manufacturing. It has now evolved to formidable force within executive structure of large food firms and has emerged into broad spectrum of activities. A quality assurance program provides the avenue to establish checks and balances in the areas of food safety, public health, technical expertise, and legal matters affecting food manufacturing firms. Activities related to food sanitation include sanitation inspections, products releases and holds, packaging sanitation, and product recalls and withdrawals.

A quality assurance program that emphasizes sanitation is vital to the growth of a food establishment. If foods are to compete effectively in the market place, established hygienic standards must be strictly maintained. However, it is sometimes impractical for production personnel to measure and monitor sanitation while maintaining a high level of productivity and efficiency. Thus, an effective quality assurance program should be available to monitor, within established priorities, each phase of the operation. All personnel should incorporate the team concept to attain established sanitary standard, ensuring that food products in the market place are safe.
Quality Assurance and Sanitation Programs in Food Industry