Q. Show Appearance of food product?
Appearance can be judged by the eye. Appearance factors include such things as size, colour, uniformity, absence of any defect, shape, wholesomeness, and different forms of damage, gloss, transparency and consistency. For e.g. scrambled egg with a very dry surface is not acceptable. Fudge with a glossy surface is rated high. Similarly, quality of a fish can be ascertained by the brightness of the eyes of fish. In addition to giving pleasure, the colour of a food is associated with other attributes, such as ripeness of fruits like banana, tomato; mango, papaya etc. can be assessed by the colour. Burnt toast or chapati is likely to be rejected in anticipation of scorched bitter taste. Therefore, colour is used as an index of maturity for a number of foods. It is also associated with the flavour and texture and in some foods, with its nutritive value (e.g. Carotene or Pro-Vitamin A). Appearance covers not only colour but also the shape, size, greasiness, transparency, brightness and o on, all of which must match consumer's expectations of that food or product. Therefore, the foods have to pass the sight test first before they can be screened by other sensory organs. In many instances we can see consistency and so it is considered a textural quality attribute. For example, ‘a thin boiled chocolate syrup, a thick or thin tomato sauce'. Similarly, size can be used as an indirect indicator of other attributes, such as maturity, e.g. small peas etc. are less mature and tenderer than big ones. Also, size helps in obtaining a more uniformly sized product, prevents wastage and gives rapid production and a high product quality.