FOOD SCIENCE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Food Science Product Development Case Study

Food Science Product Development Case Study

Introduction

Food analysis is the discipline dealing with the development, application and study of analytical procedures for characterizing the properties of foods and their constituents. These analytical procedures are used to provide information about a wide variety of different characteristics of foods, including their composition, structure, physicochemical properties and sensory attributes. This information is critical to our rational understanding of the factors that determine the properties of foods, as well as to our ability to economically produce foods that are consistently safe, nutritious and desirable and for consumers to make informed choices about their diet. The objective of this course is to review the basic principles of the analytical procedures commonly used to analyze foods and to discuss their application to specific food components, e.g. lipids, proteins, water, carbohydrates and minerals. The following questions will be addressed in this introductory section: Who analyzes foods? Why do they analyze foods? What types of properties are measured? How does one choose an appropriate analytical technique for a particular food? (Apollo Group, Inc., 2007).

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In 1990, the US government passed the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), which revised the regulations pertaining to the nutritional labeling of foods, and made it mandatory for almost all food products to have standardized nutritional labels. One of the major reasons for introducing these regulations was so that consumers could make informed choices about their diet. Nutritional labels state the total calorific value of the food, as well as total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamins, calcium and iron. The label may also contain information about nutrient content claims (such as low fat, low sodium high fiber fat free etc), although government regulations stipulate the minimum or maximum amounts of specific food components that a food must contain if it is to be given one of these nutrient content descriptors. The label may also contain certain FDA approved health claims based on links between specific food components and certain diseases (e.g., calcium and osteoporosis, sodium and high blood pressure, soluble fiber and heart disease, and cholesterol and heart disease). The information provided on the label can be used by consumers to plan a nutritious and balanced diet, to avoid over consumption of food components linked with health problems, and to encourage greater consumption of foods that are beneficial to health.

The government has a Food Inspection and Grading Service that routinely analyses the properties of food products to ensure that they meet the appropriate laws and regulations. Hence, both government agencies and food manufacturers need analytical techniques to provide the appropriate information about food properties. The most important criteria for this type of test are often the accuracy of the measurements and the use of an official method. The government has recently carried out a survey of many of the official analytical techniques developed to analyze foods, and has specified which techniques must be used to analyze certain food ...