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Bread Set Jettison posted:Its stupid. There are people who are really allergic to gluten and I have sympathy for them. Gluten intolerance has been pretty soundly debunked, and was based on pretty speculative evidence anyways. Any perceived health benefit from cutting gluten out of your diet is probably from calorie reduction and reduction of carbohydrates. If nothing else, the gluten free fad has driven up demand for GF products making them more accessible and affordable for people who do actually need it. And the awareness of GF/allergen safe food preparation at restaurants makes it possible to not be a total shut-in if you have celiac. I can only imagine it'd be way worse to have celiac 30 years ago.
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Oct 24, 2014 00:52
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Whoa, what do they do for sensory testing shampoo? I worked specifically with body wash and some face wash and shave products. Since it was such a large company I rarely did anything myself with the products, I basically briefed sensory agencies on what info I wanted and they ran panels/consumer tests and got the data back to me and I made it look nice presented it. There are expert body wash panels out there who assess body wash on various attributes like lather, in-use and post-use skin feel, etc. I didn't like working with personal care products too much though because I think taste and aroma are much more complex and fun than the sensories you get with surfactants. We're starting our own in-house descriptive panel so we're in the process of recruiting a bunch of people to assess them for suitability as an expert panelist. They're basically screened for their reliability/time commitments/ability to get to our winery and then their sensory acuity, vocabulary, creativity, ability to work in a group is screened to make sure they'd be a good panelist. We're expecting to start with 150 or so recruits and narrow it down to 25 solid ones. We'll then hire them on part time and they'll get paid like $12 an hour a few hours a week to be trained as expert tasters and then they'll be used in real studies to taste and rate wine sensory attributes. In essence we're training them to be human analytical instruments for wine. We don't care about their hedonic opinions, we just want accurate, reliable ratings for each sensory attribute :p and then we'll take those ratings, do stats on them, make sensory maps and help guide our product developers and marketeers on how their wines are perceived from a human sensory standpoint. Then we'll tie it together with consumer data and find stuff like ideal sensory profiles for certain consumer segments etc etc. We're also going to start a discrimination panel but that'll be mostly winery employees running tetrad or triangle tests as a form of QA. MAKE NO BABBYS posted:How does one get trained in "sensory" like that? I work as a bartender with high end and craft spirits, I'm a certified spirit specialist and working on my second level Sommelier and almost have a BA in Enology. I think my palate is naturally pretty dang good (I'm pretty sensitive to smells) and I've spent the last eight years training it. Would there be a use for my skills in your fields? What can I do to develop these skills more? I went to UC Davis and got a BS in Food Sci with an emphasis in brewing sci but I interned in a sensory science lab while I was there. That's how I got into it -- food sci and sensory sci are pretty intertwined as well as psychology and consumer research. To be honest a lot of people might think your palate as a sensory scientist or panel leader is very important but it's really not. It's your ability to teach a group to be expert tasters and reliably rate things the same way each and every time, to facilitate discussion, have strong study design skills, to have strong statistical knowledge to assess panel data and ensure the panel is performing well, and general jack of all trades stuff, like being able to creatively come up with a reference for what a "7" is on a 15 point scale for "Strawberry" aroma attribute in wine for example. I did have to taste wine for my job interview and describe the flavor and aroma but that was mainly to see if I had a good vocabulary, not so much to see if I was accurate or not. My palate isn't very sensitive but I am good at recognizing flavors and creatively describing them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that once you have a baseline of a palate that's all you really need to be a sensory scientist. To train yours more is more suitable as a panelist which really isn't where the money is unless you're some kind of genetic freak who finds themselves in the right place at the right time for some special expert guru position somewhere. The science part and running studies and doing the stats is the important part. Jerome Louis fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 03:51
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Also to be a sensory panelist you really have to have mostly normal taste buds (you cannot be bitter blind), no real dietary restrictions (depending on the company, but you probably cant be vegan), and you have to be a bit adventurous (you may/may not be tasting for shelf life).
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Oct 24, 2014 09:20
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Why is fake raspberry flavour associated with a neon blue colour like 90% of the time?
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Oct 24, 2014 14:48
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Entropic posted:Why is fake raspberry flavour associated with a neon blue colour like 90% of the time? Blue raspberry is a real fruit (even though its like, kind of more black). Then obviously it just got more and more removed from reality.
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Oct 24, 2014 14:56
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Blue raspberry is a real fruit 
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Oct 24, 2014 15:16
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_leucodermis
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Oct 24, 2014 15:19
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THat article indicates that the big old bramble bush in my yard growing up was in fact that, in other words I agree with this:
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Oct 24, 2014 15:22
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Entropic posted:Why is fake raspberry flavour associated with a neon blue colour like 90% of the time? Because there are so many other delicious flavors that are red.
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Oct 26, 2014 01:33
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Can you describe some specifics of how I dodged a bullet by flubbing my QA interview with a food manufacturer? What made the job suck? (I now landed a job much more in line with what I want to do long term so it all worked out).
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Oct 26, 2014 04:25
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packsmack posted:Can you describe some specifics of how I dodged a bullet by flubbing my QA interview with a food manufacturer? What made the job suck? (I now landed a job much more in line with what I want to do long term so it all worked out). QA doesn't suck, but it is a hard job that is not for everyone. My specific (soon to be former) employer did many things that were red flags. We were more than a little understaffed, and had a snowballing pest control problem that really wore on me. Now they're going to be VERY understaffed and hopefully this will kick some sense into them. Quality Assurance IN GENERAL however is not for everyone (myself include). 1. It is definitely a confrontational job. You don't ask people you tell people 2. It is a detail oriented job, like CPA level detail oriented if you're in a meat plant. We had binders upon binders of paperwork that just said what we did all day. 3. There are long nights sometimes when the FDA just decides to show up and wants to poke around. 4. It is an incredibly tedious job. This comes from being observant and really looking at every single possible small detail and how it could contaminate food. Some people who are very detail oriented people who can deal with confrontation will thrive in the job. I am detail oriented but confrontation isn't my thing, and I have a bit of ADD so the tedious nature of the job didn't mesh with me. I would find myself auditing an area, and then losing my focus and not know what I was doing. To be fair, my QA job was significantly worse than other QA jobs. You probably would have not been in a nightmare scenario I was in, but its still a tough job. Bread Set Jettison fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Oct 26, 2014 |
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Oct 26, 2014 14:49
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To me, the worst taste I associate with anything is cherry-flavored medicine I had to take as a kid. To this day, I'm not a big fan of cherry-flavored candy or anything else, and only late in my life have I realized that cherry pie and fruit punch can actually be pretty good. But last week, my wife got a stomach bug, and I actually bought her childrens' Pedialyte because she was throwing up so much. It was a "mixed fruit" flavor, and just opening the bottle caused me to gag. It was the exact cherry-medicinal smell I associate with childhood sickness and the grossest of flavors, with almost a coppery tang to it. I guess my parents must have bought that for me, and the recipe hasn't changed much in 30+ years. So I guess I have to ask: do kids actually like that taste and smell, or do companies think they do? And what would it take to improve it?
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Oct 27, 2014 05:33
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:So I guess I have to ask: do kids actually like that taste and smell, or do companies think they do? And what would it take to improve it? Just a guess here, but I imagine there isn't much they can do to effectively mask the taste of the medicine itself.
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Oct 27, 2014 12:00
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There is actually quite a bit you can do to mask the taste of medicine. I haven't even started yet, but from what they explained to me a lot of how you mask the taste comes from the raw drug flavor itself. I remember my soon-to-be boss saying that Peach Flavor was very good for drugs with a sulfide characteristic (maybe sulfite?). Also he mentioned that if something is intensely bitter, you just increase the other basic taste flavors. Its never about make a delicious meal, its about hiding everything disgusting about the medicine and making it palatable. The goal was never to make a 5 star meal but to flavor medicine so that it tastes good enough that you won't avoid taking it. Although when I do end up starting, I'm banning cherry flavor. I'll update everyone about the ins and outs of the whole thing when I get there. Bread Set Jettison fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 12:58
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Bread Set Jettison posted:There is actually quite a bit you can do to mask the taste of medicine. When I was on my pediatrics rotation in med school, we tasted a variety of the antibiotics and they were all god awful and some of us almost puked. Then we tried it with the flavor enhancers and even more of us almost puked. That poo poo is hard to make taste even palatable. Maybe its because adults palettes are more refined, but I don't know how kids can stomach certain types of antibiotics. Some are tolerable though.
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Oct 28, 2014 08:08
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swickles posted:When I was on my pediatrics rotation in med school, we tasted a variety of the antibiotics and they were all god awful and some of us almost puked. Then we tried it with the flavor enhancers and even more of us almost puked. That poo poo is hard to make taste even palatable. Maybe its because adults palettes are more refined, but I don't know how kids can stomach certain types of antibiotics. Some are tolerable though. Pills are great because they can bypass the flavor receptors. The guys I'm going to be working with are the rare experts in a pretty niche field so Im sure I'll learn a lot about how to make nasty drugs less nasty. And fwiw its not that adult palettes are more refined, its just that adults just know whats better for them. They're take the bitter medicine because they realize they should. Children won't because children aren't really at that level yet. Still, adults will struggle to take nasty medicine.
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Oct 28, 2014 10:35
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And I mean I haven't started quite yet, so a lot of this information is just coming from two interviews and a handful of conversations. I'm sure once I start doing the real work Ill have a better understanding about making tasty drugs.
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Oct 28, 2014 12:41
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Bread Set Jettison posted:And I mean I haven't started quite yet, so a lot of this information is just coming from two interviews and a handful of conversations. I'm sure once I start doing the real work Ill have a better understanding about making tasty drugs. Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I can probably answer some questions too, I work in a NPD Lab mainly focused on sauces and seasonings, so anything about crisps, ask away! edit: and sauces too Dirigibleful fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 17:55
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Dirigibleful posted:Don't mean to hijack your thread, but I can probably answer some questions too, I work in a NPD Lab mainly focused on sauces and seasonings, so anything about crisps, ask away! By all means! Last time I did this thread there was a poster who knew a poo poo ton about juice.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:36
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Although when I do end up starting, I'm banning cherry flavor. I'll update everyone about the ins and outs of the whole thing when I get there. You are my hero. To this day, I'd rather put up with a good amount of coughing than take some nasty cherry-flavored cough syrup.
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Oct 29, 2014 16:34
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Deacon of Delicious posted:You are my hero. To this day, I'd rather put up with a good amount of coughing than take some nasty cherry-flavored cough syrup. Me too. It really is the worst!
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Oct 30, 2014 03:00
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This is an incredibly interesting thread.Jerome Louis posted:Another sensory scientist here... Just got a job for a huge wine company where I'll be leading their expert panel and training people to become wine experts, and drinking and spitting lots of wine at work. Before that I worked with men's body wash. Lots of cool stuff going on with sensory science and I recommend getting into the field if you want a comfortable corporate gig doing somewhat interesting stuff, big corporations love sensory. I have to admit the body wash and the wine in the same sentence had me picturing a scientist in a lab coat with bodywash in a wine glass, swirling it around and taking sips. "This one tastes a bit too soapy."
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Oct 30, 2014 03:19
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Verdugo posted:"This one tastes a bit too soapy." This is, no joke, a thing I have said at work when tasting. I of course was not tasting soap, but rather shelf life studies of products with high oil content.
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Oct 30, 2014 10:49
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What's the deal with rBST? Specifically, does drinking milk from rBST cows have actual impact on human health? Is the "...not treated with rBST" label required or more like marketing??
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Nov 17, 2014 20:45
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Phraggah posted:What's the deal with rBST? Specifically, does drinking milk from rBST cows have actual impact on human health? Is the "...not treated with rBST" label required or more like marketing?? More to do with the ethical concerns, animals in unnecessary pain etc, so yes like palm-free gmo-free, "all-natural" and other such labels, mainly marketing.
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Nov 17, 2014 21:22
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What are the best fruits and veggies out there? If you should pick like two or three you should eat, what would they be? Also please don't say the best ones are something special like goji berries, that poo poo's too expensive.
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Nov 18, 2014 20:42
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ManOfTheYear posted:What are the best fruits and veggies out there? If you should pick like two or three you should eat, what would they be? Also please don't say the best ones are something special like goji berries, that poo poo's too expensive. I am no expert and have no sources to back me up but I am pretty sure that I have read a study about "superfoods" like goji berries and the results were that they are all marketing bullshit. Someone with more expertise should chime in but I'm pretty sure they are pretty much no better or worse than any other vegetable or fruit.
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Nov 19, 2014 06:49
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ManOfTheYear posted:What are the best fruits and veggies out there? If you should pick like two or three you should eat, what would they be? Also please don't say the best ones are something special like goji berries, that poo poo's too expensive. Blueberrys are p good nutrition wise. White grapes are likely the worst.
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Nov 28, 2014 20:06
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Any idea what that classic "Candy grape" flavor is based on? It doesn't taste anything at all like any kind of grape to me, but I do kind of like it (in very small doses) as its own thing..
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Nov 28, 2014 20:28
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What is the origin of kiwi-strawberry flavor? It seems like an odd combination. It seems like it kind of came out of nowhere in the 90s(?) What flavor is cola exactly (generically speaking)? I mean, the flavor obviously doesn't come from the kola nut.
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Nov 29, 2014 03:32
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Earwicker posted:Any idea what that classic "Candy grape" flavor is based on? Its probably based on one chemical that is distinctive in grape, but since fruit flavors are a combination of usually 100s of flavors, it tastes different. ookuwagata posted:What is the origin of kiwi-strawberry flavor? It seems like an odd combination. It seems like it kind of came out of nowhere in the 90s(?) Kiwi Strawberry? No idea. Sometimes food trends just pop up because they just work well. Uh Cocacola flavor is a huge trade secret. I guess its a blend of caramel, coca leaf and kola nut. Its called Coca Cola because it gets caffeine from kola and cocaine from coca. Yup that myth is true.
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Nov 29, 2014 03:38
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ookuwagata posted:What is the origin of kiwi-strawberry flavor? It seems like an odd combination. It seems like it kind of came out of nowhere in the 90s(?) Eating (real) strawberries and kiwis together is actually very good and fairly common in fruit salads, I assumed the flavor was based on that.
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Nov 29, 2014 03:47
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What's the deal with airline food?
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Nov 29, 2014 04:06
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Dead Man Posting posted:What's the deal with airline food? http://www.lsgskychefs.com/en/airline-catering.html
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Nov 29, 2014 04:08
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If it's nacho cheese, then whose is it?
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Nov 29, 2014 04:17
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Uh Cocacola flavor is a huge trade secret. I guess its a blend of caramel, coca leaf and kola nut. Its called Coca Cola because it gets caffeine from kola and cocaine from coca. Yup that myth is true. But there are a lot of generic "cola" flavored things, as well as store brand colas, so people must have a general idea of what cola is.
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Nov 29, 2014 04:43
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I'm curious what kind of stability programs are run in food. Do you guys do regular and accelerated stab? What are the FDA & usda requirements? What kind of criteria are used for assigning expiration dates? Does every food product mfg in the US have to have an expiration date?
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Nov 29, 2014 05:38
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Its probably based on one chemical that is distinctive in grape, but since fruit flavors are a combination of usually 100s of flavors, it tastes different. It doesn't actually get cocaine. What happens is the coca plant is processed and all the active metabolites of cocaine are processed out for pharmaceutical purposes and then what's left goes into coca cola. So if there is cocaine, it's whatever didn't get processed out at the pharma plant, and considering that's all regulated by the FDA it's very trace amounts of metabolites. A friend of mine works in the lab that processes the coca leaves. So yes, cocacola uses real coca leaves as a flavoring agent, but the cocaine gets processed out and sold to Mallinckrodt to go become pharmaceutical cocaine for severe nosebleeds and stitches in your sinuses and poo poo. The rest of what's left gets sold to coca cola for flavoring.
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Nov 29, 2014 05:39
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Are you a great cook? Are most food scientists great cooks?
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Nov 29, 2014 07:47
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AA is for Quitters posted:It doesn't actually get cocaine. Sorry i meant the fact that cocacola used to have cocaine in it. Thats since been removed.
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Nov 29, 2014 17:49
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