QUALITY FACTORS

IN FOODS
Overview
 Quality?
- sum total of product’s characteristics that satisfy
the consumer under specific conditions of use

• Appearance factors
• Textural factors
• Flavor factors
• Additional quality factors
• Quality standards
• In countries with an ample supply of food,
consumers choose what they eat on the
basis of quality = characteristics of
acceptability/preference.

• Food quality detectable by our senses:

appearance factors, textural factors, and
flavor factors.
 1. Appearance factors
A.  Color and gloss

Food color
• Determine quality ripeness and spoilage.
• Browning colour  Maillard reaction
• Natural pigment

Measuring colour
• To maintain the quality, the colour of products must be standardized.
• Colour and transparency/cloudiness: Can be measured with a
chromameter & spectrophotometer (measures light transmission
through a liquid).
 chromameter

spectrophotometer
• Hunter colorimeter: Colour measurement by division
into three components - value, hue and chroma.
• Value - lightness or darkness of a colour.
• Hue – actual colour, predominate wavelength reflected
(which determines what the perceived colour is).
• Chroma - intensity strength of the colour.
[Color can be defined in terms based on these three
components.]

• Instruments available to measure shine or gloss

• In plants: chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanins
• In animals: heme protein myoglobin
B.  Size and shape
• Size: Easily measured (e.g., fruits and
vegetables can be sized according to the
openings they can pass through; the basis for
automated separating and grading
machines).
• Shape: Some of the most difficult food
engineering problems are the designing of
equipment to pack odd-shaped food pieces.
C.  Consistency - viscosity
• Viscometer: measure viscosity of liquid/ semi-solid (fluid)
materials

Viscometer - capillary
Viscometer
• Bostwick Consistometer - time it takes for food to flow
down an inclined trough.

 measuring consistency, flow rate and viscosity of

viscous product
 to measure the distance a material flows in a given time
interval.

Consistometer
Rheometer
• Measure aspects of rheology ie: relation of the
flow/deformation behavior of material and its internal
structure.
• deformations studies of liquids, gels, soft solids and solids in
shear

Basic tools for rotational rheometer

 2. Textural factors
Food qualities we feel.
Consumers expect gum to be chewy, crackers to be crisp,
steak to be tender, cookies to be soft, and breakfast cereal
to be crunchy. The texture of food refers to the qualities
felt with the fingers, the tongue, or the teeth.

Texture is a mechanical behavior of foods measured

by sensory (physiological/psychological) or physically.
Food texture can be measured by resistance to
force.

• Instrument: Texture analyzer (replace human

sensory evaluation)
• Measurement
Compression (squeezing)
Shearing (force applied so that one part of the food
slides past the other)
Texture Analyzer
Cutting, or tensile strength
Tensile strength (pulling apart)
EXAMPLE OF TEXTURE MEASUREMENT
= cake, sponge-like product, low-fat sausage

= biscuits, chocolate, fruit (firmness-ripeness)

= butter, cheese, steak

= chewing gum, gummy sweets, pasta

= celery, potato chips

*Changes in texture are often due to water status.
 Fresh fruits and vegetables become soggy as cells break down and
lose water.
 If dried fruits take on water, their texture changes.
 Bread and cake lose water as they become stale.
 If crackers, cookies, and pretzels take up water, they become soft
and undesirable.
 Various methods are used to control the texture of processed
foods.
• Lipids (fats) are softeners and lubricants used in cakes.
• Starch and gums are used as thickeners.
• Protein can also be a thickener
3. Flavor factors

Combination of both taste (tongue) and smell (nose)

and largely subjective and therefore difficult to
measure, very complex.

• Wide divergence of opinion.

• Influences the decision to purchase and to consume a food
product
• Besides the tastes of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, an endless number
of compounds give food characteristic aromas, such as:
Fruity (volatile compound)
Astringency
Sulfur
Hot (capsaicin – activate pain sensor)
B)  Salt, sugar and acid can be measured using
instrumentation.

REFRACTOMETER (SALT & SUGAR

MEASUREMENT)

pH meter
 REFRACTOMETER
measure the bending of
light as it crosses an
interface between
dissimilar substances
and converts the
bending light rays into a
useful scale
 Taste panels

• Analytical instruments can be used, but the human “test

animal” is still the best = sensory evaluation

• Use of groups of people preferred over an individual

opinion, as differences of opinion tend to average out.

• Taste panels may be a group of professionals (trained

panelist), or they may be a group of customers
(customer preference group).
• Consumer preference groups - panels not specifically
trained but provide insight as to what consumers prefer.
• Highly trained people with heightened taste sensitivity
and knowledge of what to recognize as attributes and
defects.

Trained panelists rate specific aspects of

a flavor or food quality
Environment for taste panels.
• Isolation of tasters to avoid influence by observing
other tasters.
• Tasters unable to see how food was prepared or what
its ‘identity’ is.
Hedonic scale (for quality factors)

• Range from ‘dislike extremely to neutral to like

extremely’.

Colour

Dislike Moderate/ Like extremely

extremely neural
Approach

• Preference test: Choosing one sample over another;

samples are coded so that source or identity of food
sample is unknown to taster.

• Usually no more than 5 samples tested at one sitting; sense

of taste becomes dulled.  Statistical analysis of results is
usually employed.

Attributes
In addition to flavor, taste panels judge texture,
colour, packaging, sample arrangement, etc.
4. Additional quality factors

A.  Nutritional quality

• Chemical or instrumental analyses for specific nutrient;
however, often animal feeding tests must be used,
especially for quality of protein sources (biological
value).
B.  Sanitary quality
• Analysis for bacteria, yeasts, molds and insect fragments.
• X-rays/metal detector to detect physical contaminants (e.g., glass
chips, stones, metal fragments).
Quality standards

1. Research standards (for internal use by a company

to maintain a competitive edge)
2. Trade standards (set up voluntarily by members of
an industry to assure at least minimum acceptable
quality)
3. Government standards (many types), some are
mandatory.
Federal grade standards

• Standards of quality administered by the USDA and FSIS

(Food Safety and Inspection Service) for food inspection
and grading.
• Inspections are usually mandatory and assures product
wholesomeness.
• Halal certificate
• MS:ISO certificate
• HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control points)
• HACCP is a preventative food safety system in which a process for
manufacturing, storing and distributing a food product is carefully
analyzed step-by-step; goal is to eliminate a problem before it
occurs.