Explain performance testing of fats and oil
In these cases, performance testing is the only means for evaluating the ability of fat or oil to perform the desired functions in a food product. Actual determinations of the performance qualities of an edible fat and oil product are made with small scale practical tests that evaluate a finished product. Performance testing is essential for the development of new products, especially for fats and oils products designed for a specific food product, a formulation, or a process. After development, physical or chemical analysis can be related to performance results in most situations; however, continuation of certain performance evaluations is necessary for some products to ensure adequate performance or more timely results in some cases. Initially, most performance testing was designed for bakery products but has now been expanded to every specialty product situation, i.e., baking, frying, candy, coatings, formulated foods, nondairy products, and so forth, wherever tailored oils, margarines, oils and other specialty products are utilized. In many cases the performance tests are developed to evaluate the fat and oil ingredient as it would be used by a specific foodprocessor. You would realize, performance evaluation in itself can be a detailed subject of study. Here, in this unit we shall not dwell on this aspect. Those of you, who are interested to learn more about performance evaluation, read box 1 for information. It provides a few examples of performance evaluation.