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Reading Prep.
After reading each section
(separated by main headings),
stop and write a three- to
four-sentence summary of
what you just read. Be sure
to paraphrase and use your
own words.
Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to
• compare reasons for evaluating food products subjectively
and objectively.
• list physical, psychological, cultural, and environmental
infl uences on food likes and dislikes.
• explain how taste and aroma combine to give foods their
fl avors.
• conduct a taste test panel.
You turn when you hear a steak sizzle as it hits a hot grill. Your
mouth waters as you walk into Grandma’s home and the smell of
roast turkey surrounds you. You feel warmer just seeing the steam
rise from a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter day. You sigh as you
bite into a just-baked chocolate chip cookie that seems to melt in your
mouth. Your senses are all reacting to foods in your surroundings.
See 3-1.
How would you feel about eating grubs, drinking rattlesnake’s
blood, or chewing raw fi sh eyes? People in some areas of the world
consider these items to be delicacies. What makes you call one texture
pleasant and another texture unappealing? Why does one person
like chocolate and another person prefer vanilla?
Like all opinions, those about
food are subjective. That is, they are
affected by personal views and
backgrounds. Your environment
infl uences your food likes and
dislikes. Personal experiences
affect whether you like spaghetti
sauce chunky or smooth, spicy or
mild, with mushrooms or meat.
A wide variety of foods is
available, and people have differing
opinions about what is good. Food
scientists can use computerized
equipment to measure such
characteristics as volume and mass
of food. However, evaluating taste,
aroma, and texture is more diffi cult.
There is no tool to accurately
measure whether people will like
or dislike a food. How then can food
scientists forecast the success of
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3-1 Seeing steam over hot cocoa and smelling shortbread cookies are
part of the sensory experience of sampling these foods.