An introduction to evaluation

technologies for food quality 1

Jian Zhong, Xichang Wang
Integrated Scientific Research Base on Comprehensive Utilization Technology for
By-Products of Aquatic Product Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the
People’s Republic of China, Laboratory of Quality & Safety Risk Assessment for Aquatic
Products on Storage and Preservation (Shanghai), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
of the People’s Republic of China, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Aquatic-
Product Processing and Preservation, College of Food Science & Technology, Shanghai
Ocean University, Shanghai, China

The era of food quality has come, and the price and brands of food depend on their
quality. In utilitarian terms, food quality can be defined as “fitness for consumption”
[1]. That is to say, food quality is the characteristics of food that are acceptable to
consumers. It is an important feature of food and decides food nutrition and food
safety. It includes external factors such as appearance (size, shape, color, gloss,
and consistency), texture, and flavor (taste and odor), and internal factors such as
chemical composition, physical characteristics, and microorganisms. Among these
factors, certain features such as appearance are observed or felt, and certain features
such as chemical components need to be analyzed with the aid of instruments.
Scientists in the field of food science and engineering need to evaluate their foods
and food-processing instruments. During this evaluation process, evaluation technol-
ogies are necessary to evaluate developed or processed foods using food-processing
instruments. Many evaluation technologies are being developed or have been widely
developed and applied to comprehensively evaluate foods. These evaluation technol-
ogies can be classified into five types: food sensory evaluation technologies, chemical
analysis technologies, physical analysis technologies, molecular analysis technolo-
gies, and novel micro/nanotechnologies. Some books have been published in these
fields. For example, a number of books focus on food sensory evaluation technologies
[2, 3]. The book Food Analysis focuses on chemical and physical analysis technolo-
gies [4], and the book Handbook of Food Analysis Instruments mainly focuses on
chemical analysis technologies [5]. Until now, there are no books that systematically
describe all food quality technologies.
The purpose of this book is to summarize and assess evaluation technologies for
food quality. All chapters are classified into five parts: Part I, “Food sensory evalu-
ation technologies for food quality,” mainly introduces food sensory evaluation tech-
nologies using the electronic nose technique, electronic tongue technique, and
electronic eye technique. In this section, the food sensory technique using human

Evaluation Technologies for Food Quality. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814217-2.00001-9

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 Evaluation Technologies for Food Quality

sense is not discussed because it has been reviewed in many other books. Interested
readers are referred to the classical books [2, 3]. Part II, “Chemical analysis technol-
ogies for food quality,” mainly describes evaluation technologies to analyze the chem-
ical properties of food. Typical examples include the basic chemical analysis methods,
ultraviolet–visible technique, infrared technique, Raman technique, atomic absorption
spectroscopy, atomic emission spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectros-
copy, gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, high perfor-
mance capillary electrophoresis technique, supercritical fluid chromatography,
mass spectrometry, etc. Part III, “Physical analysis technologies for food quality,”
mainly discusses physical analysis technologies to analyze the physical properties
of food. Typical examples include the texture analyzer, rheology technique, fluores-
cence spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering technique, tribological technique, X-ray
diffraction technique, measurement technique of dielectric properties, etc. Part IV,
“Molecular biology technologies for food quality,” mainly analyzes the recent appli-
cation of molecular biology technologies to study food quality. Typical examples
include gene chip technique, nucleic acid probe technique, immunoassay technique,
etc. Part V, “Micro/nanotechnologies for food quality,” mainly analyzes the recent
application of micro/nanotechnologies to study food quality. Typical examples
include the microfluidics technique, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron
microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, electrochemical sensor methods,
nanoparticle-based methods, etc.
The unique feature of this book is that all the chapters cover the basic principles,
basic operational procedures, advantages and limitations, recent technology develop-
ments, and recent application progress in different types of foods, and summarize and
forecast evaluation technologies. This unique feature will help readers to rapidly learn
and understand the evaluation technologies for food quality.
This book provides an understanding of applications of evaluation technologies for
food quality in the field of food research and in the food industry. The target audience
of this book is broad. This book is especially ideal for scientists in the field of food
science and engineering. It is also ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate courses on
evaluation technologies for food quality. In addition, it is an invaluable reference for
professionals in the food industry. Finally, it is also useful for instrument developers
who want to develop instruments for food quality evaluation.

Acknowledgments
As the editors of this book, we wish to acknowledge the kind cooperation of the authors who
provided such grand writing. We also wish to acknowledge the kind cooperation of those pub-
lishers who provided copyrights for the figures to; individual accreditation is given in the rel-
evant figure captions. We wish to thank Elsevier for giving us the opportunity to edit this book,
and in particular Lindsay C. Lawrence, Sandhya Narayanan, Nina Bandeira, Brianna Garcia,
and Joy Christel Neumarin Honest Thangiah of the editorial staff for their almost limitless
patience. Finally, we acknowledge research grants from the National Key R&D Program of
China (No. 2016YFD0400202-8) and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission—Gaoyuan
Discipline of Food Science & Technology Grant Support (Shanghai Ocean University).
An introduction to evaluation technologies for food quality 3

References
[1] C. Peri, The Universe of Food Quality, Food Qual. Prefer. 17 (1), 2006, 3–8.
[2] H.T. Lawless, H. Heymann, Sensory Evaluation of Food: Principles and Practices, second
ed., Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, New York, USA, 2010.
[3] H.T. Lawless, Laboratory Exercises for Sensory Evaluation, first ed., Springer Science
+ Business Media, LLC, New York, USA, 2013.
[4] S. Nielsen, Food Analysis, fifth ed., Springer International Publishing, New York,
USA, 2017.
[5] S. Otles, Handbook of Food Analysis Instruments, first ed., CRC Press, FL, USA, 2008.