The Savvy Gourmet

Food Perception on Satiety and Satisfaction

Read what the researchers of INRA-France have to say on the role of perceptions of satiety and satisfaction:

“The sensory characteristics of foods contribute to both stimulating and inhibiting food intake… The pleasure of eating, rather than acting as a guide to help adjust food consumption, sometimes compromises the regulation of energy intake and weight control…

The sensory pleasure of foods participates in determining meal size and stimulating food consumption through a variety of mechanisms.”

Therefore sensory analysis will increasingly become a tool in the design of dietary or food programs. Controlling your weight and your health with sensory perception? Now that’s something!

Sensory Analysis? What’s that?

Sensory science is the study of the senses and sensory perception.

Sensory analysis requires panels of human assessors to describe a product's appearance, smell, taste, texture and sound.

And, obviously, it has its own vocabulary (see ISO 5492 Vocabulary).

Sensory analysis can be split in three sub-sections:

1) Effective testing (objective facts about products)

2) Affective testing (subjective facts such as preferences)

3) Perception (the biochemical and psychological aspects of sensation)

Whew, sounds complicated! And what is the purpose of this analysis?

It has many applications: improving products, making them more attractive, reducing production costs by avoiding unnecessarily expensive ingredients, etc. Read the following article for a surprising example.

Antioxidants? What’s that?

Several foods are consumed because they are rich in antioxidants and offer numerous health benefits. Antioxidants are found naturally in foods, or produced industrially, to reduce the negative effects of oxygen.

Indeed, antioxidants delay oxidation of food, a cause of degradation, rancidity and discoloration.

Why so much interest in these substances? Is oxygen not essential and beneficial? What exactly are antioxidants, and where do we find them? Here are a few sources for answers to these questions.

See the antioxidants pages of the Food Safety Network website of the University of Guelph.

Want to know which additives contain antioxidants? Look for the A code in the list of ingredients on the label (Refer to the Food Additive Dictionary produced by Health Canada for food additive codes).

See also the Health Canada page on Antioxidant Vitamin Research.

DRI, ANR, AMT? What’s that?

We are submerged with information on what to eat and what not to eat.

What are the scientific sources underlying this avalanche of advice? Who defines our nutritional needs, and how? To understand this complex issue a little better, here are two important references.

First, a list of definitions to understand the real meaning of the terms used in this domain (see Health Canada FAQs on food and nutrition). For example, the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) are a set of scientifically based nutrient reference values for healthy populations.

Then, tables on DRI, RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance), UL (Tolerable Upper Intake Level), etc. Seem complicated? It actually is. But if you really are concerned about adequate nutrition, it is a very good reference source, without any distortion or biased interpretation.

Balsamic Pesto from Cascina Marchesa

The balsamic pesto is the flagship product in the Cascina Marchesa (Basilidea Srl) line of products, manufactured according to ancient regional traditions.

Made mainly with olive oil, basil, cashew nut, Modena balsamic vinegar, walnut, Grana Padano cheese and pine seed. Only top quality ingredients are used. Pesto is produced according to traditional recipes, but with modern production techniques and thorough quality control.

Producers in the Spotlight - Cascina Marchesa (Basilidea Srl)

If you want to produce pesto sauces, how do you stand out from the hundreds of other producers? That’s the challenge Basilidea addressed with flying colours.

Their recipe for success is simple. Top quality pestos using only natural ingredients, with no chemical preservatives, additives or colours, state-of-the-art production techniques, and high standards of quality. It all adds up to great pesto!

Cascina Marchesa is the trademark under which these top quality products are offered by Basilidea. A name to remember.