Lecture One: "What is Food Science?"

Question 1

What are the modern approaches to battle hunger?

Answer 1

• GMOs – improve yield;
herbicides kill weeds without damaging crops: corn, cotton and soybeans

• Improve nutrition quality of convenience foods
• Improve crop yield to battle hunger at a low cost

• Formulate new products to address hunger and nutrient deficiency problems;
Eg: Children’s cereal using local/low cost grains - 30% of protein

• Hydroponic crops in places where water is scarce; Addresses produce deficiency problems in desert areas

Question 2

What is the benefits of using fast freezing for storage vegetables?

Answer 2

• Traditional freezing - Slow process to freeze

• Damaged veggies b/c water in cells form relatively large crystals that damage cell structure.
• After thawing - they are damaged and mushy

• Fast/Instant Freezing - Uses liquid nitrogen to reach -194 C in a few seconds

• Finer crystal structure that preserve nutrition and texture
• After thawing - vegetables as fresh as before

Question 3

What are the ways people preserved food in ancient times?

Answer 3

• Dry food - reducing aW
• Smoking - improved flavor, maillard reaction, preserve color; Combine with curing (adding salt)
• Pickle - using salt to prolong shelf life
• Why it works – because of water content

Question 4

How was cheese discovered?

What enzyme

Answer 4

HISTORY -First discovered in Middle East by businessmen traveling by camel through the desert
• Carried milk in slaughtered cow or sheep stomach
• After few days of sloshing around in a warm stomach, milk curdled- was good and could be kept longer

CHEESE FORMATION -
• Renin - enzyme in the stomach of slaughtered animal; changes the molecular structure of casein which forms curdles → cheese
• Hot desert and jostling of camel promoted cheese formation; still use agitation in modern cheese formation

BIOTECH DEVELOPMENT -
• Can now produce renin by bacterial fermentation (vegetarian)

Question 5

Describe how cheese is made vs yogurt

Answer 5

CHEESE - curdling of casein in milk, then add lactic acid bacteria & renin, renin (only works in low pH) curdles protein – LAB added to lower pH so renin can work

YOGURT - no renin just LAB – LAB lowers pH & casein gets curdled but the texture is more gel like (cheese is tightly packed curdle) – acid curdles casein in yogurt but renin curdles protein in cheese

Question 6

Describe the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

Answer 6

detailed regulations with production and trading, develop recommendations, safety while handling and processing.

Question 7

Describe the Food Code

Answer 7

Serves as a guidance from growing crops to being a restaurant food handler

Every preparation step the industry uses and every ingredient has to comply with Food Code (suppliers, bottling & packaging company, etc)

Prevent food borne illnesses in retail, operations, restaurant, hospitals, groceries, schools

Question 8

Describe the FDA’s roles

Answer 8

Regulates 80% of domestic and imported food supply

• Mainly processed foods
Doesn’t include meat, poultry, or processed egg products - DO regulated fresh eggs (like in the shell)
• Approves food additives and labeling
• Create safety and wholesomeness standards

Question 9

Describe the USDA’s roles

Answer 9

Regulates any meat, poultry, or processed egg products (but NOT eggs in shell)

• Enforce all food safety laws
• Research nutritional needs of Americans to develop science-based dietary guidelines
• Inspect all manufacturing plants

Question 10

Describe the food label “Natural”

Answer 10

No legal definition for “natural” in Food Code

• High fructose corn syrup is considered natural
• Psychological trick for consumers - think it’s better than competitor

Question 11

Describe the food label “Organic”

Answer 11

Well-defined term; can be sold at higher price because of this

• Has to contain at least 95% organic ingredients (not including water and salt)
• Has to be either grown in an organic form or grown in organic way

Question 12

Describe the food label “100% Organic”

Answer 12

All of the ingredients (except water and salt) produced by organic agricultural methods

Question 13

Describe the food label “Made with Organic Ingredients”

Answer 13

At least 75% of ingredients (not water and salt) grown organically

Question 14

What can organic crops not contain?

Answer 14

irradiation, sewage or synthetic fertilizers, prohibited pesticides, and GMO products

Question 15

Describe organic meat

Answer 15

livestock cannot be treated with antibiotics or growth hormones; 100% organic feed; have to have access to the outdoors and meet animal welfare standards