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Summary A simple, rapid method is presented for examining samples of fresh tomatoes and estimating the proportion of the consignment which can be expected to have a suitable surface colour after peeling. Sorting by the colour of lateral and longitudinal sections can result in an increase in the relative yield of the suitably surface-coloured peeled product, but at the cost of a decrease in total output.

Chicken carcasses were γ-irradiated with about 3.7 kGy whilst at 0°C, and stored at from +1° to +2°C. Sensory panels found that the eating quality of leg meat was satisfactory for at least 1 week, and decreased after about 3 weeks. Breast meat changed, but was satisfactory for about 3 weeks, decreasing in quality after about 4 weeks.

Summary The combination of preference tests with difference tests in taste panel procedure is shown to be free from bias. This combination is used both to select assessors and also to obtain their assessments at the same session. the influence of the selection procedure on the results obtained is considered, and found to be only moderate.

Summary The shelf life of fresh water prawns stored at 0°C was judged by a sensory panel and monitored by microbiological and chemical tests. After 14 days’ storage, but not after only 10 days, frozen (control sample) prawns were preferred over the former. During this period too, TVBN values of 0°C-stored prawn tails rose from 22 to 31 mg per 100 g, and TBA values rose from 0.25 to 0.65; the total aerobic psychrotrophic plate counts increased by about 2 logarithmic units. The relationship between the results of the various tests is discussed.

Postharvest heat treatments have been proposed as non-chemical means for enhancing storage of fruits and vegetables. Various regimes of time and temperature in either hot air or hot water maintain fruit firmness and diminish the incidence and severity of pathological diseases. Treatment with calcium, alone or in combination with heat, has similar beneficial effects. Little attention has been paid to the organoleptic effect of these treatments, upon which consumer acceptability ultimately rests. We heated (38°C, 3 d) mature-green or pink tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum, L., cv. 'Daniella') and measured overall consumer preference after the fruit were stored at 12°C for 10 d. Heated and non-heated fruit were rated similarly for acceptability by a taste panel, with no off-flavours being detected. Apples (Malus domestica, Borkh., cv. 'Golden Delicious') were infiltrated with 2% calcium chloride, or heated (38°C, 4 d), or heated and then infiltrated prior to 6 months' storage in air at 0°C. A range of flavour and texture attributes were then rated by tastes panellists. Heated and/or calcium-treated fruit were perceived as crisper, sweeter, and overall more acceptable than untreated fruit. We conclude that, in addition to conferring physiological benefits on stored tomatoes and apples, heat and calcium treatments do not damage and may even improve consumer acceptability.

Published data on the refractive index and specific gravity of aqueous sucrose solutions were compared. It is shown that small, but significant, systematic errors are present in the published tables. A means for the reduction of these errors is suggested.

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of vitamin E in diets (containing .5% soybean oil and 125 mg ethoxyquin/kg) fed to turkeys from 12 to 24 weeks of age on the stability and the sensory quality of their meat after 7 months of storage at −18 C. Increasing the vitamin E supplement from 5 to 45 mg/kg diet improved the stability of breast and drumstick (estimated by the thiobarbituric acid test), but a significant effect (P Breast muscle was consistently more stable than the drumstick meat. This difference was rather small just after frozen storage, but it increased under conditions favoring meat deterioration. Sensory evaluation of the meat using identification tests, preference ranking, nonparametric ratings, and parametric scores did not show that dietary vitamin E level improved the quality of breast and thigh meat. However, the drumstick meat of turkeys fed the diet containing the high level of vitamin E throughout the experiment was of significantly higher sensory quality than meat of birds fed the low-vitamin E diet. Meat of turkeys fed the high-vitamin E diet during only the last 4 weeks occupied an intermediate position.

The variability of microbiological sampling of 40 dressed chicken carcasses was examined by skin tissue removal followed by Stomacher homogenization. No significant differences among mean plate counts were found among five different sites on the carcasses. Mean results may, therefore, be obtained with any desired precision depending on the numbers of carcasses and sites sampled. A method is presented for optimizing the economic cost of the examination at any given precision.

SummaryThe possibility of cultivating three species of Labiatae in Israel was investigated and the reaction to nitrogen fertilizer and other cultivation factors considered. Satisfactory yields were obtained. Cultivation of oregano in order to obtain its volatile oil also appears feasible.

The volatile oil contents of dried leaves of Majorana hortensis, Melissa officinalis, Ocimum basilicum, Origanum vulgare, Salvia officinalis and Thymus vulgaris reached maximum values in summer. Di...

The uses of saffron through the ages are discussed. Originally prized both as a medicament and as a dyestuff, these applications have declined in modern times; it has also been used as a perfume. The primary market now is as a food spice—by far the world’s most expensive.

A table is provided whereby the specific gravity of potatoes, determined by weighing in air and in water, may be corrected for variations in the temperature, expressed in degrees Celsius, of both tubers and water.

The saffron crocus (Crocus sativus L.), a sterile cultivated geophyte, is propagated by annual replacement corms for the red stigmatic lobes that constitute, after drying, the saffron spice. C. sativus is a sub-hysteranthous species, i.e., it blooms in autumn shortly after planting, before, with or after leaf appearance. The remainder of its growing season constitute of initiating, filling and maturing the daughter corms which can be lifted at the beginning of summer. Cultivation is still performed by traditional methods in the countries where it is grown: corm planting, flower harvesting, stigma separation and corm lifting are all carried out manually. These labour intensive practices greatly contribute to the high price at which the spice is sold.

A hedonic scale was developed with 15 pictorial “Smiley” ratings. This scale was found useful for nonparametric assessment of quality by non-trained panels. A precise method is described for reporting median results. A method is described for quantitatively comparing rating distributions of similar products.