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Chapter 3 Sensory Evaluation: The Human Factor
Environmental Infl uences
People are more likely to eat what is available and economical.
Environmental factors such as climate, geography, and fuel availability
have much to do with food costs and obtainability. For instance,
Jamaicans eat much fresh fruit, which grows abundantly in the
warm local climate. Alaskans eat less fruit because it is not as readily
available in their colder climate. People who live near rangelands are
inclined to include a fair amount of meat in their diets. People who
live in coastal regions tend to eat more seafood. In Asia, where fuel
was scarce for centuries, raw fi sh and stir-fried dishes became common.
In the United States, where fuel was plentiful, slowly cooked stews
and roasted meats grew popular.
Food preferences are affected by your immediate surroundings
as well as by the larger environment. This has been revealed in studies
with young children. Most children learn to like the foods to which
they are exposed. Adults who enjoy oysters are more likely to have
eaten oysters as children than adults who do not enjoy oysters.
Sensory Characteristics of Food Products
To evaluate a food product, you fi rst need to
identify the desirable characteristics of that product.
What is desirable will change from one product to
the next. You want crackers to be crunchy, but cake
should be moist, and gummy bears should be chewy.
See 3-4.
There are three main sensory characteristics of
food products: appearance, fl avor, and texture.
Understanding these characteristics will help you
be more accurate in describing food products.
Appearance
Appearance refers to the shape, size, condition,
and color of a product. In other words, it is what you
see. Appearance is usually evaluated on both the
exterior and interior of a product. For instance, you
may cut a muffi n in half and draw around it to show
the outer shape. Note whether the shape is peaked or
rounded. Then you may check to see if the inside of
the muffi n is full of large tunnels or small, even holes.
Both the shape of muffi ns and the size of air cells can
indicate the quality of the product.
Color is one aspect of appearance that can be
measured exactly. A colorimeter is a device that
measures the color of foods in terms of hue, value,
and chroma. Hue refers to whether the basic color is
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3-4 Desirable characteristics for lettuce are a
green color and crisp texture. However, roast beef
should be slightly chewy and have pink coloring.