Explain different characteristics of food groups
Answers
Answer:
Foods can be grouped into categories in different ways depending on their characteristics. Ask participants to describe the characteristics of food and then suggest ways in which foods can be grouped. Elicit the following types of classification and explain why the classification is important (e.g. these differences between foods are important because they result in different types of spoilage and hence determine some of the preservative actions required of food processing).
Classification based on properties of the food:
· Dry Foods:
(nuts, cereals/flour, powdered foods, spices, oils and frozen foods)
· Wet Acidic Foods:
(fruit, fruit products, yoghurt, pickles, etc.)
· Wet Low Acid Foods:
(meat, fish, milk, dough, vegetables, etc.)
Write the three types on a flipchart.
Show participants examples of processed foods and ask them to classify the foods into these categories.
Discuss their classification to make sure all appreciate the differences. OHP (1) may be used.
Foods can also be classified into:
· High Value/Low Volume Foods
· Lower Value (usually staples)/High Volume Foods.
This classification helps determine the scale of operation and hence equipment requirements and costs.
Add these to the flipchart and fix it to a wall.
Ask participants to list foods in each category from their own areas.
Discuss the results and bring out any differences (e.g. tomatoes in one area may be high value/low volume and the opposite in another area depending on the amount grown and the demand).
2. Quality Characteristics (2 hours approx.)
Note the different quality criteria that can be applied to foods. For example in a buzz group, ask participants what is meant by food quality, elicit the following categories from the participants and write on a flipchart:
· Sensory Quality:
Colour, flavour, texture, size, shape, appearance, freedom from defects.
· Nutritional Quality:
Vitamins, minerals, protein, energy as carbohydrate or fat, fibre content. Anti-nutritional quality (pesticide residues, toxins such as heavy metals, naturally occurring antinutritional factors such as cyanide complexes in cassava, enzyme inibitors in some vegetables etc.).
· Quality Expressed as Financial Value:
This depends in part on each of the above factors, but more importantly on the demand for a food versus the available supply.
· Microbiological Quality:
If necessary explain the differences between bacteria, yeasts and moulds, the difference between safe and pathogenic micro-organisms, microbial toxins.
Explain why quality characteristics are important (e.g. for setting up quality control procedures, for marketing, for deciding correct production methods).