sensory properties of food

Question 1

five senses

Answer 1

• There are 5 senses used when tasting food & drinks
• These senses help to develop food preferences (likes & dislikes) & evaluate foods through preference or discrimination tests

Question 2

sight

Answer 2

• The size, shape, colour, temp & surface texture all play an important part in helping to determine the first reaction to food

Question 3

smell

Answer 3

• Smell (odour) and taste work together to produce flavour
• This is the reason why people with a blocked nose find it difficult to determine the flavours of foods
• Smell can trigger memories and either encourage or discourage someone from eating a food.

Question 4

taste

Answer 4

We can detect 5 basic tastes:

• bitter
• salt
• sour
• sweet
• umami

Question 5

hearing

Answer 5

• The sound of food being prepared, cooked, served and eating all help to influence food preferences
• The sounds also influence our understanding of whether they are fresh or ripe

Question 6

touch

Answer 6

• Food texture is the way food is felt by the fingertips, tongue, teeth and palate
• When food is placed in the mouth, the surface of the tongue and other sensitive skin reacts to its surface texture.
• This sensation is known as mouthfeel.

Question 7

taste receptors

Answer 7

• Our tongues are covered with taste buds, which are designed to sense chemicals in the mouth
• Most taste buds are located in the top outer edges of the tongue, but there are also receptors at the back of the tongue as well as on the walls of the mouth and at the back of the throat
• As we chew food, molecules mix with saliva, enter taste pores and interact withtaste receptors
• This triggers nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain
• sensitivity to all taste is distributed across the whole tongue and other parts of mouth but some areas are more responsive to certain tastes than others

Question 8

olfactory system

Answer 8

• This is the sensory system used for olfaction, or the sense of smell
• As we breathe in, the olfactory receptor cells are stimulated by odours and the olfactory membrane sends neural messages up the olfactory nerve to the brain

Question 9

characteristics of food

Answer 9

A characteristic can be defined as a distinctive quality or mark which makes something quite different from anything else

The particular characteristics we need to consider with food are:

• physical characteristics such as texture, flavour and appearance
• chemical characteristics concerned with nutrient content
• flavour is the combination of taste, smell, texture and appearance