FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 107
(4 units) FALL QUARTER

COURSE GOALS: The course goal is to give students an insight into the sensory testing of foods by providing an understanding of the senses and information processing in the brain. Using this understanding students will evaluate and design appropriate methods for the sensory testing of foods. At the end of the course, students should be acting like scientists and be able to custom build methods designed specifically for each product, depending on how that product affects the sensory system.

ENTRY LEVEL: Students should have sufficient statistical background to be able to analyze their laboratory experiments. They will also require enough statistical background to understand measurement tools discussed in the classes, like Signal Detection Theory, Thurstonian Modeling, R-Index measures, the nonparametric nature of numbers obtained by numerical estimation, etc. Such background is obtained from the following courses: Agricultural Management and Range Resources (AMR) 120 or Food Science and Technology 117. These courses may be taken as prerequisites or corequisites.

TOPICAL OUTLINE:

1. Taste profiling.
2. Function of the senses in relation to foods
3. Information processing in the brain with respect to perception of foods
4. Sensory attributes of foods and beverages and their perceptions
5. Goals of behavioral measurement
6. Discrimination testing of foods
7. New theoretical approaches to discrimination
8. Preference and acceptance testing of foods
9. Theoretical frequencies
10. Methods of intensity and hedonic scaling for foods
11. Laws of Psychophysics
12. Description of sensations elicited by food
13. Descriptive analysis

READING: A manual of lecture notes and current readings is provided. Students are required to read some papers each week in support of their lab write-ups. Computers are used for statistical analysis of laboratory class data.

GRADING PERCENTAGES AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week, supported by as many office and tutorial hours as is necessary (generally 2-4 hours). Grades based on midterm (20%), weekly lab reports and problem sets (50%) and a final exam (30%). The testing does not involve rote learning exercises; instead students are required to use their knowledge to solve problems, interpret data and detect flaws in badly designed sensory measurements.

EXPLANATION OF POTENTIAL COURSE OVERLAP: There is minimal overlap with Food Science and Technology 127. The overlap gives a brief introduction to some topics which will be treated in detail in FST 127. There is no course overlap with NPB 100, 101, or 121. This course concentrates on methods and theory of food and personal product testing. There is minimum overlap with any course given in the psychology department. The course is devoted to methods for measuring the sensory characteristics of food. It involves the use of behavioral measurement but the focus is on measurement of taste, texture, smell and irritants.

DATE PREPARED: June 28, 2003
INSTRUCTOR: M. O ’Mahony