UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

Biglang Awa St., Corner Catleya St., EDSA, Caloocan City

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

PRINCIPLES OF FOOD PREPARATION

 
SUBJECT CODE: TLE 031
TOPIC OR LESSON 1: SAFETY AND SANITATION
MODULE Five (5)
WEEK: 6
SUB-TOPIC/S: 5.1 Food Evaluation
5.2 Food Preparation Process

 OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC

Quality is a desired attribute for any food product.

Consumer choose food on the basis of its quality and their individual likes and dislikes.
When consumer makes a selection they basically look for food that is attractive in terms of colour,
flavour, texture, the nutritional quality and shelf  life.
Keeping quality and cost factor are other criteria which may affect their selection .
Today’s consumers are discerning, demanding and more knowledgeable about food.
Therefore knowing consumer’s preferences of the sensory characteristics of food and beverage
products is vital to food manufacturers as well as caterers.
Without appropriate evaluation, there is high risk of market failure.

In this self-paced module, you will learn different concepts from the following lessons:

Lesson 1: Food Evaluation

Lesson 2: Food Preparation Process

LEARNING
OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Define food evaluation
2. Understand the importance of evaluating food
3. Discuss the food preparation process

LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
Each lesson presented in this module aims to attain some learning outcomes.

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 Lesson 1– Food Evaluation
a. Enumerate the different methods of food evaluation
Lesson 2 – Food Preparation Process
a. Identify the basic vegetable cuts
b. Demonstrate the different cuts of vegetables
c. Evaluate food according to senses

ENGAGE

Activity 1: Matching pairs

Smell and Taste
Directions: Students will l the look and match for the pair of food through games.

EXPLORE

Activity 2: Random Wheel

Directions: The instructor will drag the wheel to spin and to see the food item and let the
students share their experience on a particular food item.

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 EXPLAIN

Evaluation of foods involves instrumentation and use of physical and chemical techniques to evaluate

food quality.  Food quality has both subjective and non-subjective aspects. Appearance, texture, and
flavour are largely subjective attributes, whereas nutritional and bacterial quality is not.

Objectives of Food Evaluation

The major objectives of evaluation of food are:
(1) To develop new products – the food industry depends on evaluation in developing new products
and maintaining quality in existing products.
(2) To observe consumer reactions – how the consumer reacts to particular food dictates the quality
of the product.
(3) To identify changes in menus to make food acceptable – catering supervisors in institutional food
service depend on evaluation to identify changes in menus to make food acceptable.
(4) To collect information of food acceptability –the studies on plate waste provide valuable
information regarding food acceptability.
(5) To assist in determining the shelf life of a product.
(6) To understand how the product competes in the market.
(7) To determine whether or not consumers can detect differences between products due to recipe
modification.

QUALITY can be evaluated by

(1)sensory methods i.e. by sensory organs like eyes, nose and mouth
(2)objective methods i.e. by use of instruments.

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 Conducting sensory evaluation
 A panel of judges is selected. They should be unbiased for tasting.
 Physical, Psychological, and environmental conditions should be maintained as these affect one’s
judgement.
 The sampling has to be done homogenously

METHODS OF FOOD EVALUATION

 Discrimination tests/Difference tests
 Rating tests
 Sensitivity tests
 Objective Evaluation

Sensory Evaluation of Food

When quality of food is assessed by means of human sensory organs the evaluation is said to be
SENSORY OR SUBJECTIVE OR ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION.
The method of judging of food is done by a panel of judges.
The evaluation deals with measuring, analyzing, and interpreting the qualities of food as they are

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perceived by the senses of sight, taste, touch, etc.

By the senses of sight the size shape and colour of the food and other characteristics like
transparency, opaqueness, turbidity, dullness or gloss can be perceived.
Other sensory organs i.e. nose and mouth are utilized to obtain information on flavor. Flavour of a
substance is due to the combined senses of taste and a composition sensation known as mouth feel.
The various attributes to be judged are:
APPEARANCE: - The surface characteristics of food product contribute to the appearance
          Example: surface of a chocolate is smooth.

COLOUR – Colour provides variety to the diet and used as an index of quality for a number of foods
          Example: Ripeness of fruits and the strength of tea and coffee.

FLAVOUR – Flavor has 3 components odour, taste, and mouth feel. Mouth feel consists of texture,
consistency and temperature of food.
The texture of the food can be smooth or velvety as that of an ice cream or can be coarse as that of corn
flakes.

Classification of Methods of Evaluation

Sensory Evaluation
Sensory evaluation is the evaluation of the sensory properties of food (appearance, flavour, texture)
• It can be carried out by the following steps:
Look at the food and describe the overall appearance
Smell the food and describe its aroma
Cut the food and feel its texture
Chew the food and describe the taste and mouthfeel

Sensory properties of food are

Appearance
Involves the sense of sight
Can be described in terms of colour, size, shape, consistency and crumb
• Example: golden brown, small, round, smooth

Texture
• Involves the senses of sight and touch
• Mouthfeel is the sensation when we bite and chew food
•Different cooking methods produce different textures  Example: soft, chewy, crispy, sticky, grainy,
coarse etc.

Flavour
• Flavour is produced by a combination of taste and aroma
• Taste – The taste buds on our tongue enable us to detect the different tastes of food – Example: sweet,
spicy, bland, buttery, nutty
• Aroma – Involves the sense of smell – Detected by the nose – Example: fragrant, burnt, floral, fishy,
fruity.

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Conducting Sensory Evaluation
A panel of judges is selected. They should be unbiased for tasting.
Physical, psychological and environmental conditions should be maintained as these affect one’s
judgement.
The sampling has to be done homogenously.

Preference Test
Judging should be done in individual booths.
This assures independent judgement and communication between panel members should be allowed
except for consultation with the panel leader on any point of doubt.
The best time of day for sensory testing is morning 10.00 am to 12 noon and 3 to 5 pm.
The size of the panel is usually 50 to 100 people to avoid any experimental error.
Judgement should be done quickly, but not hurriedly.
They are valuable in developing new foods and in evaluating quality.
These tests are designed to provide information on selected characteristics and to indicate preference or
acceptability of products.

Acceptance Preference Test

In this method, a single sample or two samples may be tested.
It is used to find out whether a product will be used by consumers and this also shows their preference for
the sample being tested.
If a new food is introduced, only one sample is offered to the panel, but if a food is modified then two
samples are offered and their preference is seen .
The HEDONIC SCALE is most commonly used for evaluation.
In this scale ratings of preference or liking and disliking are measured.
It is generally used with untrained assessors.

HEDONIC SCALE
There is also a Facial Hedonic Scale consisting of 5 to 9 faces depicting varying degrees of
pleasure and displeasure , it may be used with young children.

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Fact Scale
FACT SCALE – food action rating scale
It is a more sensitive method made up of a nine point food action rating scale.
The codes used clearly indicate the action the panelist would take regarding the food i.e. how often the
subject would like to eat the food.
FACT Scale

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 DISCRIMINATION TESTS/DIFFERENCE TESTS
They are also known as difference tests carried out by small group of trained judges. These tests are
designed to determine whether the difference in two or more food products can be detected.
The result of these tests are more precise and reproducible The judges are asked to describe differences in
the samples presented to them in any of the following ways:

1. Triangle test-three samples one different and two identical. Panelist has to identify the odd sample.

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2. Duo-trio test- this test also uses three samples, one different two identical. First the panelist is presented
with one of the identical sample known as the reference. subsequently the other two are presented in
random order. The panelist has to match one of these to reference sample.

3. Paired comparison test-two samples in a pair are presented to the panelist who is asked to indicate if
there is any difference between them.
Prepare two different samples of the food product you wish to test.
Compare one attribute, e.g. which one is smoother?
Record the response from the tasters

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 RATING TESTS
These are quantitative and are very often used for consumer testing. They employ more than two sample
and can tell which one is better.
1. Ranking test-the panelists are presented 2-7 samples to rank them in an increasing or decreasing order
based on one or more attributes such as flavour, colour or texture.
2. Hedonic rating test-this can measure food acceptability by different groups of consumers eg school
canteens, mess. The panelist rate the food on a 9 or 5 point hedonic scale ranging from like extremely to
dislike extremely. 
3. Numerical scoring test- score system is used to evaluate the foods.eg score of 90 may be awarded to
excellent quality, whereas a score of 20 may be assigned to the poor quality product.
4. Composite scoring- this rates every quality attribute such as colour, texture and flavour separately and
then scores are compounded. Total scores represent overall acceptability of the product

SENSITIVITY TESTS
They assess the ability of individuals to identify and detect different aspects of food quality. They help in
training panelists for evaluating specific food products.
1. Threshold test- any food item or water with salt or sugar in increasing concentration.
Taste threshold test
This test determines the lowest concentration of a substance that can be detected.
It also indicates the lowest concentration of a substance required to be able to identify it. The taste
threshold of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes can be detected.

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 Sweet - usually indicates energy rich nutrients.
Umami - the taste of amino acids (e.g. meat broth or aged cheese).
Salty – the taste of common salt.
Sour - typically the taste of acids.
Bitter - allows sensing of diverse natural toxins.

2. Dilution test- this test is used to detect the presence of unknown substance added in a small amount to a
natural food product.
This test is used to measure the quality of an ingredient which has been substituted.
A standard sample is presented to the judges followed by other samples which may or may not contain
the unknown at a definite level of dilution.
Example: use of dried egg powder with fresh eggs. If of good quality the product quality will be difficult
to get detected, if poor quality the product will be detected at low concentration or high dilution.

OBJECTIVE EVALUATION
It consists of various physical and chemical tests to measure physical features, such as volume, viscosity,
specific gravity and chemical composition such as nutrients present and pH of food.
These tests supplement the data obtained through sensory evaluation.
Test/Instrument Description
 
Physical methods

Penetrometer Measures tenderness

Compressimeter Measures Firmness or softness of a cooked product

Shortometer Determines texture of a baked product

Farinograph Determines consistency
 
Chemical methods

Nutrient analysis Determines nutrient content in food

pH- pH meter Shows degree of acidity or alkalinity of the food

DESCRIPTIVE TESTS
These tests describe the sensory attributes of food in exact words and the judge / evaluator is asked to
select the exact word description from the score card which matches with the sample.
These tests are superior to preference tests which provide information about acceptability of a food
sample and discrimination tests which detect deviations between samples.

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Accurate descriptions of each characteristic of the sample to be evaluated by the judges is described over
a range.
The score cards needs to be carefully designed for descriptive testing.
These are two types of descriptive tests.

 Profiling
In this, a panel of experts sit together and formulate a very detailed word description, generally of flavors
which is used as a standard for evaluating further product.

Score cards
In this method food samples are individually evaluated by judges with the help of score cards which have
a series of descriptive terms or levels of a characteristic.
Numerical values or scores are assigned to each descriptive term.
FOR EXAMPLE : The juiciness of meat which is a textural characteristic is evaluated on the basic of one
of the following terms:

Extremely juicy     - 6
Moderately juicy   - 5
Slightly juicy          - 4
Slightly juicy          - 3
Moderately dry     - 2
Extremely dry        - 1

FOOD PREPARATION PROCESS

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The Mise-en-place is the first step to successful food preparation. It means “putting in place” . Organize
the job beforehand. Get all needed materials together, and then keep things cleaned up and in order as
you move toward the final goal during production.

Cutting Techniques

The most basic skill a cook must have is the ability to handle a knife quickly and efficiently to
produce the exact size and shape of product needed. Although cutting machines often save time and
labor, no machine can duplicate the versatility and judgement of an experienced cook with a good knife.
The most basic cutting tool is the French Knife.

Why Proper Cuts are Important?

- The first reason is uniformity
- ensures that you have even predictable cooking times. Nobody wants carrots that are mushy and hard at
the same time. Size is important when it comes to stocks or soups.

The following are some basic cuts of vegetables:

1. Jullienne ( strips ) – cut into 1 inch length, cut the lengths into thin slices, then cut the
lengths into strips.

2. Brunoise ( small dice ) – cut into convenient sized lengths, cut the lengths into 1/12 of an
inch slices. Cut the slices into 1/12 of an inch strips, then cut the strips into small
squares.

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 3. Macedoine (dice) – cut the vegetables into convenient lengths, cut the lengths into ¼ of
an inch slices. Cut the slices into ¼ of an inch strips. Cut the strips into square about a
quarter of an inch.

4. Jardiniere ( batons) – cut into ¾ of an inch lengths. Cut the lengths into ¼ of an inch
slices. Cut the slices into thicker strips.

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 5. Slicing / Roundelle – Cutting of food into thin broad slices.

6. Batonnet – cut into 6 cm long pieces

7. Mincing food ingredients are finely divided into uniform pieces.

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 8. Chiffonade – slicing technique in which herbs or leafy green vegetables are cut into
long, thin strips.

CUTTING EQUIPMENT

1. VEGETABLE PEELER
2. FILLETING KNIFE
3. CHEF’S KNIFE
4. CARVING KNIFE
5. BONING KNIFE
6. PALETTE KNIFE
7. FORK
8. SHARPENING STEEL

ELABORAT
E
Activity 1:
Demonstrate the different cuts of vegetables. RECORD a video of your work. Be able to follow safety
precautions in the kitchen.

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Activity 2:
Write a review for food you have recently ate.

Food: _______________________________________________

Describe the food you ate

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

EVALUATE

To be given during synchronous class

REFERENC
ES
Kitchen Essentials Basic Food and Preparation Manual , Wiseman’s Book Trading , Inc 2019
Discovering Food, Helen Kowtalik, Glencoe/MCGraw-Hill Publishing Compan, Mission Hills,
California (1992)

ADDITIONAL
MATERIALS

Web link:
http://foodsciencehm.blogspot.com/2019/04/unit-6-evaluation-of-food.html
https://hmhub.me/methods-food-evaluation/

PREPARED BY:

Jinky L. Hassan
Asst. Prof II

Reviewed by:

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Prof. Decina Francisco

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