Basic Food Preparation

• Food Selection or Food Choice


  Refers to how people decide on what to buy and eat. A complex set of factors that vary from person to person and depend on culture, heritage and upbringing all influence food choice. Can also be influenced by other characteristics that correspond to personal preferences (e.g., sustainability labels for fair trade, organic labels or health-related information such as health claims)
• Criteria for Food Selection

  • Sensory Criteria
  • Nutritional Criteria
  • Cultural Criteria
  • Religious Criteria
  • Psychological and Sociological Criteria
  • Budgetary Criteria
• Sensory Criteria


  • Evaluate food consciously or unconsciously, primarily by how it looks, smells, tastes, feels, and even sounds. Taste matters most. We experience the pleasure of eating, through our sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
• Sight


  Eyes receive the first impression of foods: the shapes, colors, consistency, serving size, and the presence of any outward defects. Color palette affects appeal.
• Odor


  Almost as important as appearance when people evaluate a food item for quality and desirability. One classification system recognizes six groups of odors: spicy, flowery, fruity, resinous (eucalyptus), burnt, and foul. Another widely used scheme consists of four groups: fragrant (sweet), acid (sour), burnt, and caprylic (goaty).
• Taste


  The most influential factor in people's selection of foods. Done with our tongue via taste receptors (gustatory cells) in our taste buds. In order for a substance to be tasted, it must be dissolved in liquid or saliva, which is 99.5% water. Five Taste Stimuli: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, savory. Each item used in food preparation contains several compounds, and bringing these items together creates new tastes when all their compounds interact.
• Factors that can affect taste

  • Internal: genetic variety in sensitivity to basic taste of each individual
  • External: Food Temperature, Food Color, Time of the day, Age, Gender, Degree of hunger, Variety
• Taste vs Flavor


  Taste: relies on the taste buds' connection to the brain via nerve cells, which signal the sensations. Flavor: a broader concept than either taste or aroma, aroma provides about 75% of the impression of flavor, do not stay at the same intensity day after day, but diminish over time.
• Touch


  Operates inside the mouth or through the fingers. Conveys to us a food's texture, consistency, astringency, and temperature. Texture: combination of perceptions (visual, touch, mouthfeel). Consistency: slightly different from tenderness. Astringency: causes puckering of the mouth, is possibly due to the drawing out of proteins naturally found in the mouth's saliva and mucous membranes. Chemethesis: how certain foods that are not physically hot or cold appear to give the impression of being "hot" or "cooling" when placed on the tongue.
• Hearing


  Sounds associated with foods can play a role in evaluating their quality. Communicate a great deal about a food while it is being prepared, poured, or chewed. Affected by water content, and their characteristics: sizzling, crunching, popping, bubbling, swirling, pouring, squeaking, dripping, exploding, and crackling.
• Nutritional Criteria


  Over the past several decades, emerging scientific evidence about health and nutrition has resulted in changing food consumption patterns. Changing food habits are related to the increased awareness that diet can be related to some of the leading causes of death.
• Daily Nutritional Food Guide

  • The Philippines uses the daily nutritional guide pyramid and has developed pyramids for different population groups. Divided into levels of recommended consumption.

  
• Pinggang Pinoy


  The healthy food plate for Filipino adults completes the messages of the pyramid by showing adequate distribution of nutritious foods in a meal.
• Philippine Dietary Reference Intakes

  • Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), Recommended Energy/Nutrient Intake (REI/RNI), Adequate Intake (AI), Tolerable Upper Intake Level or Upper Limit (UL)

  
• Consumers have shifted their dietary concerns and intakes, and more people are reading the Nutrition Facts on food labels to understand what they are consuming.
• The focus of Dietary Guidelines has been to promote the best diet for reducing the risk of chronic disease often resulting from excess consumption of the wrong kinds of foods and to boost the intake of nutrients such as calcium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium.

  
• Nutraceuticals


  Term often used to refer to dietary supplements (US). A product isolated or purified from foods, and generally sold in medicinal forms not usually associated with food and demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease (CA). Establishment of E commission (EU) to ensure product standardization and safe use of herbs and phytomedicines. Studies the scientific literature for research data on herbs based on clinical trials, field studies, and case studies.
• Functional foods


  Hippocrates: "Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food". Known in Japan as "Foods for Specified Health Use". Produced, selected, or consumed for reasons beyond basic caloric and nutrient content. No official definition existing for "functional foods" (US).
• Cultural Criteria


  Culture is another factor influencing food choice. Customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. The most basic rule in a food culture is to classify which food is acceptable and edible. Each culture has their own ins and outs when it comes to food. Religion and Culture are usually interchanged time and time again but there should be a partition between the two.
• Ethnic Influences


  • In US, there are four major groups: African, Other (includes two or more races), Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, and Native/Alaskan Americans. Many foods once considered ethnic are now commonplace.
• Place of Birth


  Birthplace influences the foods that a person will be exposed to, and helps to shape the dietary patterns that are often followed for life.
• Geography and Climate


  Were the main determinants of what foods being available to be chosen. Wide distribution of formerly "local" foods throughout the world provides many people with an incredible variety of food choices.
• Cultural Influences on Manners


  Not only influences what types of foods are chosen, but also the way they are consumed and the behavior surrounding their consumption.
• Religious Criteria


  Religion is another important influence on food choices. Religious beliefs affect the diets of many by declaring which foods are acceptable and unacceptable and by specifying preparation procedures. There are many religions with dietary restrictions and food traditions. Some are more famous than others, but all need to be respected and observed as closely as we are able when menu planning.

  
• Christianity


  • Bread and Wine, Eggs, Turkey or ham, Fish
• Catholicism


  There are holy days and periods on which devout Catholics will fast. For example, meat is not allowed on Fridays during Lent. And fasting is expected on Good Friday and Ash Wednesday.
• Eastern Orthodox Christians


  If practicing, there will be weekly fasts that require abstention from alcohol, eggs, dairy, fish, meat, and olive oil. There are other fasts that are longer and are more exclusionary in their food choices.
• Seventh-Day Adventists


  A vegetarian diet is recommended but not required for members (lacto-ovo-vegetarians). They avoid alcohol, fish, poultry, and other meat, but will eat some animal products, such as eggs and dairy. Consumption of between-meal snacks, hot spices, alcohol, tea, and coffee is discouraged.
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

  Discourages the consumption of alcohol, coffee, and tea. "Sparingly use of flesh by beast and fowl".
• Hinduism


  930 million followers of Hinduism live in India. Goal is to reach "enlightenment" or "nirvana". Promotes vegetarianism among some, but not all, of its followers. Strict Hindus do not eat eggs, poultry, and any flesh of any animal but do eat dairy (lacto-vegetarians). Some strict Hindus do not eat garlic, onions, mushrooms, turnips, lentils, or tomatoes. Brahmins, a class of Hinduism, have special restrictions on who and how their food is prepared and stored. Coconut and ghee, or clarified butter, are also accorded sacred status, but may be consumed after a fast.
• Hinduism Fasting


  All practicing Hindus have several fasting periods, some of which are limited to plant foods and others that are stricter. While some Hindus will fast weekly, there are also New Moon days, holy days, and festivals that require fasting. Diwali is perhaps the most famous Hindu holy period, lasting five days, the last two of which, many Hindus will fast.
• Buddhism


  Over 100 million Buddhists in China and 300 million worldwide. Does not specifically restrict any particular food or food preparation. Buddhists believe in karuna, which is compassion, and karma, a concept that implies that "good is rewarded with good; evil is rewarded with evil; and the rewarding of good and evil is only a matter of time". Interpreted into the vegetarian dietary practice. Lacto-vegetarianism is most common for Buddhists, which includes dairy and animal products, but does not allow meat. Theravada, a branch of Buddhism does allow pork, chicken, and fish if the animal was not slaughtered for consumption, but consumption ends up being the best way to respectfully utilize the entire animal after death.
• Judaism


  Kashruth is the list of dietary laws adhered to by orthodox Jews. Kosher dietary laws focus on three major issues: 1) Kosher animals allowed, 2) Blood not allowed, 3) Mixing of milk and meat not allowed. Foods are sorted into one of three groups: meat, dairy, or pareve (containing neither meat nor dairy). Kosher foods include fruits, vegetables, grain products, ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats that have split hooves and chew their cud, chicken, turkey, goose, and certain ducks. Unclean or trief foods include carnivorous animals, birds of prey, pork (bacon, ham), fish without scales or fins (shark, eel, and shellfish such as shrimp, lobster, and crab), sturgeon, catfish, swordfish, underwater mammals, reptiles, or egg yolk containing any blood.
• Islam


  Over 1 billion Muslims worldwide. Halal is what is considered permissible under traditional Islamic law and is the guide under which we understand dietary restrictions. The five major areas addressed by the halal follow: 1) Animals not allowed, 2) Blood not allowed, 3) Improper slaughtering method, 4) Carrion (decaying carcass) not allowed, 5) Intoxicants not allowed. Alcohol and products containing alcohol in any form, including vanillin and wine vinegar, are forbidden. Stimulants such as tea and coffee are also discouraged. Ramadan is a particularly holy period with associated dietary restrictions and food traditions.
• Psychological and Sociological Criteria


  Social and psychological factors strongly influence food habits. For most people, the knowledge that food is readily available provides a sense of security. Social conscience and peer pressure sometimes influence food choices. Psychological needs intertwine with social factors when foods are used more for a display of hospitality or status than for mere nourishment. Several studies have shown that information influences expectations, and expectations mold choices. Psychological factors also influence people's response to three relatively recent additions to the food market: genetically modified, organic, and natural foods.
• Budgetary Criteria


  Cost is a very important limiting factor in food purchasing. Cost helps determine the types of foods and brands that are bought and the frequency of restaurant patronage. "Can I afford this?" is a question that also applies to time, which can make convenience foods effectively more economical, even if the dollar price is higher.
• Food evaluation


  The use of testing methods to measure the sensory factors related to food selection and to evaluate food quality
• Purposes of food evaluation


  • Research and development (R&D)
  • Product improvement
  • Sales and marketing
  • Quality assurance
  • Nutrient content analysis for labeling requirements (Nutrition Facts)
  • Detecting contamination or adulteration
• Sensory evaluation


  The scientific discipline of measuring the responses of people to food products as perceived by their senses of sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing
• Sensory evaluation


  • Subjective because it relies on the opinions of selected individuals