Unit 1 The Science of Food
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A number of factors influence your personal food likes and
dislikes. These include your sense of taste and positive and negative
experiences you have had with certain foods. Where and how you
live, religious practices, and holiday traditions are cultural factors
that can affect how you feel about some foods. The impact of climate
and geography on the availability and cost of products also shape
your food preferences.
Understanding factors that affect your likes and dislikes will
help you fairly evaluate samples in the food science lab. In the lab,
you will be practicing sensory evaluation. This means you will be
using your senses to judge the appearance, flavor, and texture of
food products. You will develop sensory skills and learn to use
descriptive words to make scientific observations. In time, you
will find it easier to identify small differences among food samples.
Sensory evaluation is used by food scientists to assess how
consumers will respond to new products. This type of evaluation is
provided by taste test panels. Panels may consist of trained testers or
untrained consumers. In either case, food scientists need to carefully
control factors that can trigger bias in panel members.
1. List four main factors that infl uence taste preferences and give
an example of each.
2. What factors affect a person’s ability to detect fl avors?
3. What is taste bias?
4. List the three main categories of sensory characteristics.
5. What three aspects of color are measured by a colorimeter?
6. What are the two components of fl avor?
7. What fi ve basic tastes can the human tongue sense?
8. What fi ve qualities are used to evaluate the texture of a food?
9. When are trained and untrained test panelists most often used
to evaluate the sensory characteristics of a food product?
10. List four factors that researchers must control when setting up a
taste test panel.
11. Select a food that most members of your family like prepared
differently. Describe each person’s preference.
12. How do burning the tongue, catching a cold, and aging affect a
person’s ability to taste?