Food Service Technology最新文献

Menu price endings communicate more than economic worth. Restaurateurs encourage consumers to attribute intrinsic meaning to specific price endings, such as quality and value, but these derived meanings are not universally accepted. This study indicates that Taiwanese restaurateurs use price-ending digits in varying frequencies and may attribute different meanings to menu price-ending digits compared to US restaurateurs. For instance, digit 4 is perceived as a negative number and rarely used for price-ending purposes by the Taiwanese. Although digit 8 is perceived as a lucky number, it is used less frequently than digits 0 and 5. There is an emerging trend to use digit 9 as a price-ending choice in the quick service restaurant (QSR) segment indicating adoption of Western pricing practices. In spite of widespread westernization, the Taiwanese still hold many traditional cultural beliefs that affect their pricing strategies. Food production methods have remained largely traditional, although there is an emerging trend to adopt Western methods in the QSR segment.

A new scientific research discipline has been accepted at the Department of Restaurant and Culinary Arts at Örebro University. The subject area definition of Culinary Arts and Meal Science, as opposed to Culinary Science, was chosen. This is because Culinary Arts places great emphasis on practical skills, aiming to combine these with science as well as with working methods with an artistic content. Thus its scientific approach is a multidisciplinary one, joint efforts with other sciences being necessary, for instance by maintaining a scientifically varied tutorship. Research areas such as ethnology, sociology, anthropology, business economics, nutrition, domestic science and public health all constitute adjacent branches. These areas treat the meal from various aspects, which are examined in this paper. During the course of our educational endeavours at the department, we studied the meal from a five-aspect viewpoint with the following main elements: the room, the meeting, the product, the atmosphere and the management control system, which also constitute the framework within which we formulate our issues and questions. First, this five-aspect approach is a constructive and all-inclusive aid for those who plan and produce meals, especially in restaurants – all with the ultimate aim to achieve maximum satisfaction among the guests in different meal situations. If, then, the guest/diner evaluates the meal with something like these five aspects in mind is the subject of our research! At present, seven PhD students have been admitted to the postgraduate course in Culinary Arts and Meal Science. These students will study the meal, or certain parts of it, and the importance of the various components are presented from a number of perspectives.

The School of Home Science at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand was established in 1911 to enable women to obtain a university qualification in Home Science. Accommodation was provided for students in the Home Science Hostels. From 1940 until 1990 the hostels accommodated approximately 120 students each year. In 1943, a set of recipe cards was published for use in hostel kitchens. They were used continuously as a basis for hostel meals until 1993 and were revised four times during the period. It is suggested that an explanation of the original selection of the recipes together with an interpretation of additions and omission over the period would mirror and explain changing attitudes to food in New Zealand society. The content of the sets was examined, omissions and additions noted and a comparison made with recipes included in popular New Zealand and American household cookbooks. Overall, it was found that factors that influenced the make-up of the recipe set and bought about change were: the background of the Foods Department staff, the hostel food supervisors, the requirements of the student residents, nutritional guidelines and food ideologies. The first recipe set revealed some American influence, but over the period, despite the institutional context, hostel meals, remained fairly traditional and mirrored the food practices of most New Zealand households.

Food quality and food acceptability were judged from the product alone in the early 20th century, and from the product and consumer beginning in the middle of the 20th century. Later we began to realize the importance of the context or environment in judgments of product quality and assessments of product acceptability. This paper reviews the growth of the three factor approach to understanding quality and acceptability, and presents an example of current research in each. Meal context, expectations, and eating location research are reviewed as examples of the three factor approach. The importance of context is emphasized throughout the review.

In the UK, television cookery programmes engage the attention and enthusiasm of large audiences. Celebrity chefs are household names whose books nearly always top best-seller lists. Magazines and newspapers routinely include meal recipes and reports on food-related issues. In this sense, the domestic preparation of food has probably never attracted greater public interest. Paradoxically, much is also now said and written about the general loss of practical cooking skills. The latter takes on a special significance especially in relation to adverse changes in UK eating patterns and food safety problems. The paper contributes to an understanding of this paradox by examining what has happened to food preparation skills. The 20th century was a context for massive social and technological changes, and these were reflected in the domestic environment. Among younger cohorts many of traditional food preparation skills have atrophied but to some extent we can view this in terms of changed timescales of acquisition. Also, on the basis of historical evidence, there may be grounds for optimism in a re-evaluation of the extent and diversity of cooking skills in the past.

It is anticipated that new European Union requirements will make Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) controls mandatory for every food business other than primary producers, irrespective of size. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has set itself the targets of a reduction in foodborne disease of 20% by 2006 and 30% of food businesses to be operating such controls by 2004. Although it has been argued that HACCP is not well suited for the catering industry, the FSA has formulated an action plan for this sector, which includes training, provision of guidance materials, business support and monitoring. The FSA in Wales has funded local authorities to raise the HACCP awareness of caterers by a variety of methods. An evaluation of caterers’ perceptions of HACCP and hygiene was undertaken. Results indicate that the understanding of risk, hazards and risk management was low but caterers were not hostile to this system of food hygiene management. A sector-specific hygiene and HACCP course was designed, delivered and evaluated. The reactions and performance of caterers on the free course were good. The short- and longer-term evaluation of this approach may contribute to the widening HACCP strategy.

Soybean sprouts soup was made by mixing 100 g blanched soybean sprouts with 400 mL tap water containing 0.8% salt. The soup was vacuum packed in a plastic bag and cooked at 97°C with subsequent rapid cooling. Packaged samples were stored in a refrigerating chamber at 3 and 10°C. Sous vide (cook-chill) soybean sprouts soup was evaluated for physicochemical quality changes and microbial safety during storage to examine the possibility of shelf-life extension and industrial application. The physicochemical changes examined were colour, texture and concentration of ascorbic acid. More deterioration in the quality of the soybean sprouts soup was found when stored at 10°C than at 3°C. Initial numbers of aerobic, anaerobic and psychrophilic bacteria were high but those of heat resistant bacteria, yeast and molds were low in the raw soybean sprouts. Finally no microorganisms were detected after sous vide processing. The sous vide soybean sprouts soup received high scores in all sensory evaluations and did not differ significantly from the freshly cooked soup. We conclude that soybean sprouts soup prepared in the described manner may be stored for at least 6 days under chilled conditions and used by the food service industry with good quality characteristics.