CHAPTER 12

QUALITY FACTORS IN FOODS

1. INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY FACTORS Quality of foods has been defined as degree of excellence and includes taste, appearance and nutritional content. The quality is the composite of characteristics that have significance and make for acceptability. However, the acceptability can be highly subjective. Food quality detectable by our senses can be divided into three main groups: (1) appearance factors, (2) textural factors and (3) flavor factors

(1) Appearance Factors Size Shape: Size and shape are very important for fruit and vegetable grading. i.e.) degree of curvature, perfection of sphere, surface homogeneity. Wholeness: degree of whole and broken pieces Damages Gloss: light reflection of surface, related to reflectance and surface smoothness. Glossmeter measures light reflectance with various angles (30, 45, 60) Transparency Color: specific wave absorption is measured by a spectrophotometer (absorbance or % transmittance). Reflected light can be measured by a colorimeter. Hue-chroma-brightness (artists and traditional unit); L-a-b (scientists unit); R-G-B (engineers unit). Consistency: viscosity. Bostwick consistometer and various viscometers measure the consistency.

(2) Textural Factors Textural factors include hand-feel and mouth-feel either with fingers, tongue, palate, teeth and utensil. Many research developed procedures to replace subjective human sensory evaluation by quantitative mechanical instrumentation. Three basic modes of textural tests are compression, shearing, cutting and tensile.

Firmness Softness Juiciness Chewness Grittiness Crispiness Stickiness

Some factors are composite of these different types of forces, which are: Toughness of meats Tenderness

Texture is determined by measuring resistance of deformation to force using a various instrument. Succulometer Universal testing machine (Instron, Texture Analyser) Penetrometer Tenderometer

Currently a various research and development innovate new non-destructive texture measurement which have been used as medical diagnostics as well as quality inspection of manufacturing system. Machine vision system Metal detector Ultra sound system NMR MRI CAT scan

(3) Flavor Factors Flavor is a combination sensation of both taste and smell, and also very subjective making measurement and standardization very difficult. Flavor sensation is psychological as well as physiological. Generally flavor is analyzed by trained sensory panels for the psychological effect determination including the physiological effect, as well as quantified by analytical chemistry methods (GC, HPLC) Sensations by tongue: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, pungency, tannic Aromas by nose: 3000 min. standard flavors for artificial flavor and perfume industry

(4) Additional Quality Factors Nutritional quality Sanitary quality Quality maintenance: storage, distribution and handling conditions Others: foam of beer, bubbles of Champaign, cloudiness of juice, eye (hole) size/distribution of Swiss cheese, mold growth on Roquefort/Camembert cheese, CO2 pressure in soft beverage

(5) Quality Standard Federal grade standard - Canadian Regulation: CFIA (http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/reg/rege.shtml) - USA Federal Regulation: USDA (http://www.ams.usda.gov/) Beef (8 grades in USDA): Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, Canner. What is Canadian standard? Egg (12 grades in USDA): AA (high, average, low), A (high, average, low), B (high, average, low), C (high, average, low) Processed fruits and vegetables (USDA): each fruit and vegetable has its various point system on each quality factors. Quality factors are absence of defects, color, flavor, character, consistency, uniformity, texture, tenderness/maturity, and clearness of liquor.

Examples of the relative importance (% points) of factors involved in USDA standard

absence of color flavor character consistency uniformity texture tenderness clearness of Product defects maturity liquor Apples 20 20 40 20 Asparagus 30 20 40 10 Carrots 30 25 15 30 Whole corn 20 10 20 40 10 Fruit jelly 20 40 40 Source: Kramer and Twigg. 1970. Quality Control for the Food Industry, 3rd ed., Vol. 2. AVI Publishing, Westport, CT.