Food quality INDEX

Senesi E, Galvis A and Fumagalli G. 1999. Quality indexes and internal atmosphere of packaged fresh-cut pears (Abate Fetel and Kaiser varieties). Ital J Food Sci 2 111—120. 

Jorgensen, L.V., Dalgaard, P.H. and Huss, H. (2000). Multiple compound quality index for cold-smoked salmon (Salmo salar) developed by multivariate regression of biogenic amines and pH, J. Agric. Food Chem., 48, 2448. 

Mietz, J. and Karmas, E. (1977). Chemical quality index of canned tuna as determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography, J. Food Sci., 42, 155. 

The taste of foods and beverages often depend on the concentration and type of acid they contain. Two common concepts deal with acidity in foods titratable acidity and pH. Each of these must be determined experimentally as each has its own impact on food quality. Over the years it has been shown that titratable acidity and pH contribute to the acid taste. However, the acid taste of food high in organic acids is dependent primarily on titratable acidity and secondarily on pH (Plane et al., 1980). The following equation has been proposed by Plane et al. to determine an acid taste index, i.e., acidity index (/a), of a food sample ... 

Changes in the aggregation state may result in insolubilization of the protein, or its binding (not necessarily through covalent bonds) to other insoluble components. Thus, disappearance of a specific protein from the pool of soluble proteins in a given food may be detected by any of the techniques discussed above, and taken as a reliable index of process damage. A prime example of this simple approach to defining food quality at the molecular level may be the detection of individual whey proteins to define the quality of heat-treated milk. 

Biogenic amines have been used to establish quality indexes in various foods in order to signal the degree of freshness and/or deterioration of meat, fish, wines, and other foods and beverages (Mietz and Karmas, 1977 Hernandez-Jover et al., 1996a Ruiz-Capillas and Moral, 2001 Silva and Gloria, 2002 Vinci and Antonelli, 2002 Ruiz-Capillas and Jimenez-Colmenero, 2004 Ruiz-Capillas et al., 2007, 2011). A food with toxic levels of amines such as histamine or tyramine often appears organoleptically normal, like tuna or fermented chorizo, so that unacceptable and toxic levels of histamine are undetectable prior to consumption (Vidal-Carou et al., 1990 Lopez-Sabater et al., 1996). 

Vinci, G. and M. L. Antonelli. 2002. Biogenic amines Quality index of freshness in red and white meat. Food Control 13 519-524. 

The reported chemical markers are useful markers of sterility, which is an important quality index in shelf-stable foods. The use of the markers to map lethality distribution in particulate foods has been demonstrated. The markers can be used for validating and optimizing new thermal processing technologies such as ohmic heating and microwave sterilization. 

Photoelectric-Colorimetric Method. Although the recording spectrophotometer is, for food work at least, a research tool, another instrument, the Hunter multipurpose reflectometer (4), is available and may prove to be applicable to industrial quality control. (The newer Hunter color and color difference meter which eliminates considerable calculation will probably be even more directly applicable. Another make of reflection meter has recently been made available commercially that uses filters similar to those developed by Hunter and can be used to obtain a similar type of data.) This instrument is not a spectrophotometer, for it does not primarily measure the variation of any property of samples with respect to wave length, but certain colorimetric indexes are calculated from separate readings with amber, blue, and green filters, designated A, B, and G, respectively. The most useful indexes in food color work obtainable with this type of instrument have been G, which gives a... 

AAoisture determination is probably one of the most important and most widely used analytical measurements in the processing and testing of food products. It is of economic importance both to the consumer and to the food technologist. To the technologist, the moisture content is frequently an index of stability and quality of food, while to the consumer, it may serve as a measure of quantity as well as a measure of quality. 

Because the quality and health aspects of foods cannot be measured by a single index, it necessarily follows that the subject of control methods in the canned food industry is very broad, and includes chemical, physical, organoleptic, and bacteriological tests, only the first of which is discussed here. The measurement of color, odor, optical clarity, texture, viscosity, and chemical composition has been used to evaluate canned foods, but in many cases the methods that are applicable to one product are either not applicable to another, or can be used only after considerable modification. 

On the GM debate and biosafety research, a review of results performed under the European Commission supervision ( EC-sponsored Research on Safety of Genetically Modified Organisms , edited by C. Kessler and I. Economidis) is available also online at the EU-website http //europa.eu.int/ comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/. An update on current research in food safety, nutrition and food-related disease might be found in the websites of the World Health Organization, http //www.who.int/fsf/GMfood/index.htm, and of the UK Food Standards Agency, http //www.foodstandards.gov.uk/. 

The amount and ratios of BAs in food can serve as quality indicators via the biogenic amine index (BAI), introduced by Karmas (24) and calculated from the most abundant BAs in fish and food according to the following equation ... 

The taste sensor will be applicable for quality control in food industry and help automation of the production. The sense of taste is vague and largely depends on subjective factors of human feelings. If we compare the standard index measured by means of the taste sensor with the sensory evaluation, we will be able to assess taste objectively. Moreover, the mechanism of information processing of taste in the brain as well as the reception at taste cells will also be clarified by developing a taste sensor which has output similar to that of the biological gustatory system. 

Thiamine (Vitamin B.). Citrus products are also good sources of thiamine. They proviae comparable amount or more of vitamin B, than foods that are known suppliers of this nutrient on the basis of nutrient density as measured by the Index of Nutrient Quality (INQ) (64). Listed in Table XI are the INQ of some common foods. The vegetables have high INQ since the index is calculated on unit nutrient per KCal, but citrus products are higher in INQ than some other fruits. Wholewheat bread, usually considered as a source of vitamin B. has an INQ much lower than that of orange juice. Thiamine in canned orange juice is rather stable. 

Table XI. Comparison of Index of Nutrient Quality (INQ) of the Amino Acids of Citrus Products With Those of Various Other Common Foods ...

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