Senses & Food Sensory Evaluation

Senses &

SENSORY

EVALUATION

Multiple Choice

Jeopardy Style Question:

Body chemistry

Number of taste buds

Age

Gender

• What is physical?

• What is psychological?

• What is cultural?

• What is environmental?

Influences on
Food Preferences

Physical

Issues that can affect the ability to
detect flavors:

● Body chemistry

● Number of taste buds

● Age

● Gender

Multiple Choice

Jeopardy Style Question:

Label terms

Brand names

Advertising

Peers

Settings/Format of taste testing

• What is physical?

• What is psychological?

• What is cultural?

• What is environmental?

Multiple Choice

What is taste bias?

• is a like or dislike that is linked to past positive or negative experiences

• Taste bias is a form of prejudice based on a person's cultural background.

• Taste bias is a form of discrimination based on a person's food preferences.

Influences on
Food Preferences

Psychological

Taste bias is a like or dislike that is
linked to past positive or negative
experiences

⚫

Label terms

⚫

Brand names

⚫

Advertising

⚫

Peers

⚫

Settings/Format of taste testing

Fun Fact:The message center
for smell is surrounded by the
emotion center of the brain

Multiple Choice

Jeopardy Style Question:

Religion/Religious Practices

Lifestyle

Holiday traditions

• What is physical?

• What is psychological?

• What is cultural?

• What is environmental?

Influences on
Food Preferences

Cultural

Beliefs and behaviors strongly
influence exposures to food and
resulting food preferences

● Religion/Religious Practices
● Lifestyle
● Holiday traditions

Multiple Choice

Jeopardy Style Question:

Geography

Climate

Food costs

Obtainability

• Physical

• Psychological

• Cultural

• Environmental

Influences on
Food Preferences

Environmental

People are more likely to eat what is
available and economical

⚫ Geography

⚫ Climate

⚫ Food costs

⚫ Obtainability

⚫ Immediate surroundings affect food

preferences

⚫ Most children learn to like foods they are

exposed to

⚫ Preferences carry on into adulthood

OVERCOMING
TASTE/BIAS

EVALUATING FOOD IS
MORE THAN LIKE OR
DISLIKING FOOD
TRAIN YOUR TASTE BUDS

▫ Taste is a mental exercise
▫ Use precise terminology:

◾ Option 1(list)

◾ Option 2 (slides)

Interpret food; don’t just eat it

USE ALL OF YOUR SENSES

TO SCIENTIFICALLY

EVALUATE FOOD

Multiple Choice

When evaluating appearance what is the evaluator looking for?

• Size, shape, condition, & color

• Hue: Basic color

  Value: Lightness or darkness of the color

  Chroma: Intensity

• How food feels to the fingers, tongue, teeth, and palate (roof of the mouth)

Sense of Sight & Food
APPEARANCE

Size, shape, condition, & color

Example: Muffins

Peaked, rounded, tunnels inside,
size of air cells, etc

Multiple Choice

When measuring appearance what is the evaluator looking for?

• Size, shape, condition, & color

• Hue: Basic color

  Value: Lightness or darkness of the color

  Chroma: Intensity

• How food feels to the fingers, tongue, teeth, and palate (roof of the mouth)

Measuring APPEARANCE

A colorimeter is a device that measures
the color of foods in terms of hue, value,
and chroma
● Hue: Basic color
● Value: Lightness or darkness of the

color

● Chroma: Intensity

APPEARANCE Influences
Color can influence a person’s perception of other
sensory characteristics

Colored lights may be used in a sensory evaluation
to prevent color from influencing a taste panel

Multiple Choice

When measuring texture, what is the evaluator looking for?

• Size, shape, condition, & color

• Hue: Basic color

  Value: Lightness or darkness of the color

  Chroma: Intensity

• How food feels to the fingers, tongue, teeth, and palate (roof of the mouth)

Sense of Touch & Food
TEXTURE

How food feels to the fingers, tongue, teeth,
and palate (roof of the mouth)

“Mouthfeel”

◾ Refers to the texture to the palate

Consider the
TEXTURE
in terms of

Chewiness
Graininess
Brittleness
Firmness
Consistency

Multiple Choice

What is chewiness?

• How well 1 part of a food slides past another without breaking

• Refers to the size of the particles in a food product

• How easily a food shatters or breaks apart

• Food’s resistance to pressure

• Thinness or thickness of a product

Chewiness

How well 1 part of a food
slides past another without
breaking

versus

Multiple Choice

What is graininess?

• How well 1 part of a food slides past another without breaking

• Refers to the size of the particles in a food product

• How easily a food shatters or breaks apart

• Food’s resistance to pressure

• Thinness or thickness of a product

Graininess

Refers to the size of the
particles in a food product

versus

Multiple Choice

What is Brittleness?

• How well 1 part of a food slides past another without breaking

• Refers to the size of the particles in a food product

• How easily a food shatters or breaks apart

• Food’s resistance to pressure

• Thinness or thickness of a product

Brittleness

How easily a food shatters
or breaks apart

versus

Multiple Choice

What is Firmness?

• How well 1 part of a food slides past another without breaking

• Refers to the size of the particles in a food product

• How easily a food shatters or breaks apart

• Food’s resistance to pressure

• Thinness or thickness of a product

Firmness
Food’s resistance to pressure

Tough foods require a
considerable biting force to chew

versus

Multiple Choice

What is Consistency?

• How well 1 part of a food slides past another without breaking

• Refers to the size of the particles in a food product

• How easily a food shatters or breaks apart

• Food’s resistance to pressure

• Thinness or thickness of a product

Consistency

Thinness or thickness of a product

Measured in terms of
“pourability”

versus

Au Jus

Gravy

How we HEAR food

The sound a food makes when bitten or chewed
Examples:

▫ Crisp
▫ Soggy
▫ Slurp

Sense of FLAVOR & food

FLAVOR is a combination of:
TASTE
AROMA (sense of smell)

Sense of Flavor & Food

TASTE:

Sweet
Salty
Bitter
Sour
Umami (Savory)

How many taste buds does
the average person have? 500

Multiple Choice

Define astringency?

• The ability of a substance to draw up muscles in the mouth

• The ability of a substance to cause a sweet taste in the mouth

• The ability of a substance to cause a dry sensation in the mouth

• The ability of a substance to cause a numbing sensation in the mouth

SOUR FOODS

are evaluated in terms of

ASTRINGENCY:

The ability of a substance to draw
up muscles in the mouth

“Mouth-puckering power” of a food

Flow of Taste Buds

Research indicates that a food’s taste is related to the shape of the food’s
molecules

Molecule of food matches to particular

taste bud

Nerve ending sends a message

to the brain

Brain knows which nerve impulse was sent

from that particular taste bud

Factors Affecting Taste Buds

Flavor Enhancers:

Open receptor sites on the tongue
increasing stimulation.

▪ Increases flavor sensations & smooth

out flavors

Examples:

▫ MSG
▫ Mushrooms

Multiple Choice

What taste factors are affected by age?

• Temperature

  Age

  Taste blind

• Color

  Texture

  Smell

• astringency

  volatility

  aroma

Factors Affecting Taste Buds

Temperature
Warmer food has more aroma & flavor

Age
Babies have more sensitivity; decreases
with age

Taste blind
Unable to distinguish taste
Often a result of diseases and/or colds

Sense of Flavor & Food

AROMA:
The odor of a food

20,000 different aromas
detected by the human nose

Can’t smell anything?
Anosmic:
The inability to smell
odors

Olfactory Bulb:

▫ Bundle of nerve fibers

located at the base of
the brain

▫ Associates 1000’s of

type of nerve
stimulation with specific
foods and/or
experiences

Aroma Test

1.

Waft the test tube containing
the vanilla bean & cinnamon
stick.

2.

Waft the test tube containing
only the cinnamon stick.

3.

Waft the 1st test tube again
(containing both).

What aroma(s) do you smell in the 1st
test tube the second time around?

Multiple Choice

Define volatile.

• Substances that contain particles that evaporate or become gaseous quickly

• A type of computer memory that is very fast but also very expensive

• A stock market term that describes stocks that are highly unpredictable

• A type of computer file that can be easily changed or altered

How does this work?

First some aroma terminology...

Volatile:

▪ Substances that contain

particles that evaporate or
become gaseous quickly

Put together...

▪ Odor results from volatile particles

coming in contact with the
olfactory bulb

▪ The brain links various nerve

stimulations with specific foods and
experiences

Sense of Smell

The nose only picks up

CHANGES in smells

Interesting Fact:

Right handed people smell better

with right nostril and vice versa

Connecting AROMA with TASTE

to produce FLAVOR