FOOD QUALITY AND PALATABILITY FACTORS

Food Quality
• Is the characteristics of food which are acceptable to consumers
• Can be:
– product based – the one producing food (responsibility of the manufacturers)
– user based - User based – the user determines the quality of the
product. Researchers define this user based criteria as ‘fitness for
use’,

– manufacturer based
– value based
• Product based – related to features or attributes of the product that
enhance quality, food example, organically produced food products as
opposed to ‘regular’ products.
• User based – the user determines the quality of the product.
Researchers define this user based criteria as ‘fitness for use’, for
example, ready-to-eat microwavable dinners as opposed to other forms
of manufactured dinners.
• Manufacturer based – conformance to specifications. Manufacturing
engineering specifies the product characteristics and the more closely
manufacturing can conform to those requirements, the better to quality
of the product.
• Value based – the notion of price and value for money is introduced
into this definition of quality. Quality is the degree to excellence at an
acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost.
Value comprises price and quality of product and service.

Product Based Food Quality

• Is focused on features or attributes of the product which enhance quality
– example:
• in milk 2% vs. 1% vs. fat free vs. whole milk
• organically manufactured food products vs. traditionally
manufactured products
Includes the following food aspects:
• appearance
• texture
• flavor
• manufacturing practices used
User Based Food Quality
• Is established by how the user, or end consumer, determines the quality of the product
– can be a single person or a restaurant
• Is defined by researchers as “fitness for use”
– example:
 • ready-to-eat microwavable dinners as opposed to other
forms of manufactured dinners
Personal User Based Food Quality
• Is determined by an individual’s decision or choice of food quality
– example:
• buying frozen vegetables instead of fresh vegetables
• purchasing a low-fat microwave dinner instead of the ingredients to make
the dinner
Restaurant User Based Food Quality
• Is usually determined by group decisions and is influenced by public expectations
– example:
• a restaurant chef creating homemade, unique dishes with local
ingredients
• Usually has higher standards to ensure customer satisfaction
– example:
• restaurant owner will not buy any ingredients with defects
Characteristics of User Based Food Quality
• Includes the following:
– storage
• type of food being stored, method of storage, duration of storage,
packaging, temperature
– end use of food
• ingredient, eaten fresh and as-is, ready-to-eat meal
– preference
• fresh, processed, organic, premade, homemade
– pest management
• preventing pests, correcting current pest problem
Manufacturer Based Quality
• Is established by a food’s conformity to specified and designated quality
standards
– the more closely manufacturers can conform to those requirements the
better quality the product
• Has many government guidelines to ensure a high quality product is achieved
Government Quality Guidelines
• Ensure testing through each step of the food industry process
– raw material
– finished product
– in-process tests
• Provide a basis for keeping proper records and documentation of quality assurance
• Ensures the protection of the nation’s food supply
 • Creates quality and safety standards
• Formed the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to ensure
the meat, poultry and processed egg supply is safe and high quality

Quality Assurance

• Is the application of quality checks and procedures to immediately correct any failure
which may reduce the quality of a product at every step of production
• Requires diverse technical and analytical skills

Quality Assurance Testing

• Is a set of activities designed to ensure all food making processes are acceptable to ensure
the system as a whole is functioning properly
• Is carried out by conducting the following actions:
– standard operating procedures
– good manufacturing practice
– top quality management

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

• Are a set of directions which must be followed to ensure food safety when completing
tasks such as cooking or cooling a food or sanitizing a work surface
• Should be used as a guide to establish a food safety program
• Include the following principles:
– corrective actions
– monitoring procedures
– verification procedures
– record keeping procedures

Corrective Actions
• Can include the following practices:
– punishing an employee who does not follow SOP guidelines
– rewashing or sanitizing food contact surfaces
– retraining employees over operating procedures
– halting a production line for emergency cleaning or maintenance
– recalling a product which is discovered to be contaminated or
damaged in some way
Monitoring Procedures
• Can include the following processes:
– visually and physically inspecting food contact surfaces of equipment
and utensils
– taking temperature readings of sanitizing and cleaning solutions
– watching temperature and pressure gauges, if applicable, to ensure the
machine is operating according to specifications
– observing production lines to ensure nothing goes wrong

Verification Procedures
• Can include the following actions:
– confirming foodservice employees have taken the required temperatures and
tested the sanitizer concentration by visually monitoring
foodservice employees during the shift
– reviewing, initialing and dating the Food Contact Surfaces Cleaning and
Sanitizing Log
– keeping logs on file for at least 1 year

Record Keeping Procedures

• Can include the following records:
– Cooking and Reheating Temperature Log
– Cooling Temperature Log
– Food Contact Surfaces Cleaning and Sanitizing Log
– Production Log
– Receiving Log
– Refrigeration Log
– Thermometer Calibration Log
– Food Safety Checklist

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs)

• Describe the methods, equipment, facilities and controls for producing processed
foodstuffs
• Provide control over the safety of the nation’s food supply
• Cover the safe production of foodstuffs from bottled drinking water to infant
formula

Top Quality Management

• Is an approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction which improves
processes, products, services and working culture
 • Foodstuffs must comply with desired and required specifications sought out by
management
Trouble Shooting
• Solves various problems caused by the following:
– poor quality materials
– unreliable supplies
– malfunctioning equipment
– customer complaints
• Can keep a problem from repeating

Value Based Quality

• Is the combination of the price and worth of products and services
• Can impact food acceptability by placing more value on produce and meat which are
raised using organic practices
– higher worth in the mind of the consumer balances the high price of the item
FOOD PALATABILITY
• It is how pleasing one finds a particular food
• Depends on the following senses:
– taste
– smell
– texture
– appearance
• is the hedonic reward (i.e., pleasure) provided by foods or fluids that are agreeable to the
"palate", which often varies relative to the homeostatic satisfaction of nutritional, water,
or energy needs
Taste
• Is detected on the tongue and in the mouth through taste buds
• Is composed of five basic receptor zones
– sweet
– salty
– sour
– bitter
– umami

Taste Buds
• Are structures on the surface of the tongue and mouth which detect food chemicals
• Consists of 50 to 100 specialized sensory cells
• Allow signals to be transferred from the ends of nerve fibers to the specific parts of the
brain which perceive taste
Umami
 • Is a Japanese word meaning savory or tasty
• Is typically detected on taste receptors for L-glutamate
• Shares common glutamate compounds as monosodium glutamate (MSG)
– umami is derived from naturally occurring glutamates such as tomatoes
Smell
• Is detected in the nose and nasal cavity,
– contains specialized sensory neurons located in a small spot of the membrane
lining the roof of the nose
• Is an olfactory response in our brains
• Can be intensified through the heating of foodstuffs
– such as baking a cake or pie
Olfactory Response
• Processes include:
1. odorants stimulate receptors on the cilia
2. odorants stimulate more than one receptor and a single receptor interacts with
more than one different odorant
3. this pattern of activity is sent to the olfactory bulb, where other neurons are
activated to form a perception of the odor
4. these perceptions pass through the brain, influencing the flavor of a food
Food Texture
• Is defined as the overall measure of oral sensations associated with placing food in the
mouth
– also known as mouthfeel
• Can significantly alter the palatability of a food
– example: people perceive hard, rough-textured foods as lower in calories than
soft, smooth ones
Food Appearance
• Is the visual effects of a food or its packaging
• Can greatly influence the palatability of a food
– example: foods and packaging which are bright and colorful are more appealing
to consumers than dark, dim colors because they are more healthy looking in
appearance
Early Man
• Used taste as a key way of survival when eating foods
– sweet taste meant energy providing carbohydrates
– salty taste meant essential minerals
– sour taste meant it was possibly going bad
– bitter taste meant it was possibly toxic
– umami taste meant it contained protein
Factors Affecting Meat Palatability
• Include:
 – species
• red meat or poultry
– breed
– gender
• female or male hormone
– diet
• grain-fed vs. grass-fed
– age
• veal vs. steak

More Factors Affecting Meat Palatability

• Include:
– packaging
• vacuum sealed, cling wrapped, etc.
– fat
• amount and type
– muscle
• location of the meat
– aging
• dry vs. wet
– cooking methods
• degree of doneness
Factors Affecting Plant Food Palatability
• Include:
– protein content
– sugar content
• higher palatability
– growth stage of the plant
• maturity and ripeness
– environmental conditions
• climate and soil
Flavor
• Is the perception of a food determined mainly by the information collected from aroma
and taste
Flavor Chemistry
• Is the study of compounds which elicit a flavor sensation produced from chemical
compounds reacting with receptors in the mouth and nasal cavities
Food Choice & Acceptability
• Can be discovered by thorough market research and consumer testing
• Is comprised of the following determinants:
– biological
 • hunger, appetite, taste
– economic
• cost, income, availability
– physical
• access, education, skills, time
– social
• culture, family, peers, meal patterns
– psychological
• mood, stress, attitudes, beliefs
Consumer Testing
• Ensures consumers approve of quality and palatability of a product through various
testing methods
• Includes:
– market research
– focus groups
– consumer panels
Market Research
• Is the action or process of gathering and analyzing information about
consumers’ needs and preferences to understand which products and
services are in demand
• Can be carried out through statistics which already exist
• Can be carried out through surveys
Quality Factors in Foods and Sensory Evaluation
• Quality Factors in Foods
• Appearance Factors- may be interpreted differently by different people.
• It has some highly subjective measures and some highly objective measures.
1) Size and Shape- sizers and weight
2) Color and Gloss- light transmission, color charts and colorimeters.
3)Consistency- viscometers
• Textural Factors
• Refers to factors we feel with our fingers, teeth, tongue etc
• Also called “rheological properties”
• Ex Crispiness, chewiness, stickiness etc
• Measured by rheometers-viscometers and texture analyzers
• Flavor Factors
• Combination of taste and smell-very hard to measure
• Most flavor compounds are highly volatile (easily evaporated from foods).
• Many times, flavor is associated with color.
• Taste panels may be used to distinguish between different flavors
Sensory Evaluation
• Sensory evaluation is the scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze and
interpret those reactions to characteristics of foods and materials as perceived through the
senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.
• Sensory Perception Step by Step
• Stimulus; appearance, flavor, texture
• Sensation; Sensitivity of individual, not under the control of the brain.
• Perception; Mental treatment of the signal.
• Response; Expression of the perception.

Perception of Taste and Flavor

• The basic tastes are perceived on the tongue.
• Aroma and flavors are perceived through the nasal cavity.

Taste and Perception

• The perception of basic tastes (salt, sour, bitter and sweet) are perceived on the tongue
and involve compounds that are soluble in water or oil.
• Receptors are located primarily on the tongue but some are also present on the surface of
the palate and in areas of the throat.
• Recovery time varies between seconds but certain bitter compounds may remain on the
receptor for hours.
• There are 9,000 taste buds on the tongue. Sensitivity is not related to the number of taste
buds.
• The areas marked on the following chart are where the receptors of a particular type
predominate.
There are three basic categories of Sensory tests.
1) Discrimination- “Are products different in any way”
2) Descriptive-”How do products differ in specific sensory characteristics”
3) Affective-”How well are products liked or which products are preferred”

REFERNCES:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072592/
#i2261.whataretastebuds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatability
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/palatability
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/palatability
https://www.google.com/search?
q=palatability+factors+of+food&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj21_vXxKzdAhUcTY8KH
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