Introduction to Food Science

NACTA Journal, Jun 2005 by Schmidt, Shelly J

Introduction to Food Science By Rick Parker, Delmar, a Division of Thomson Learning Inc., 2003, 636 pages, hardcover, $62.95.

Introduction to Food Science provides the students with a comprehensive overview of the food science discipline. It is well organized and easy to comprehend. The book is written at a level that is appropriate for advanced high school or beginning college students. The book is comprised of 28 chapters, which are divided into four sections. Section I, Introduction and Background (chapters 1-8), provides the student with an overview of the fundamental topics necessary for understanding the science of foods. Chapter topics include a review of basic chemistry, nutrition and digestion, food composition and quality, unit operations, and food deterioration. Section II, Preservation (chapters 9-15), discuss the various methods of food processing and preservation, including, heat, cold, drying, radiant and electrical energy, fermentation, microorganisms, biotechnology, chemicals, and packaging. Section III, Foods and Food Products (chapters 16-23), relate the application of food science principles to commodity groups, such as milk, meat, poultry and eggs, fish and shellfish, cereal grains, legumes and oilseeds, fruits and vegetables, fats and oils, candy and confectionery, and beverages. Section IV, Related Issues (chapters 2428), discusses various food science issues related to people and the environment, such as environmental concerns, food safety, regulations and labeling, world food needs, and career opportunities.

Each chapter begins with a number of student center-objectives and key terms and concludes with a brief summary, a set of review questions, student activities, resources, and Internet URL's for further information. To help maintain interest, each chapter contains a short, informative sidebar. For example, in the Food Composition chapter (chapter 5) the sidebar informs the student about the relationship between muscle cramps and diet. The book also contains an extensive Appendix, containing various conversion tables, additional Internet resources, a large food composition table, and a Glossary of Terms. These additional chapter and book features provide the students with a valuable set of resources for improved comprehension and further study.

The text contains a generous number of tables, graphs, figures, and images that successfully enhance the understanding of the explanation provided in the text. However, these items are all printed in gray scale, which lacks the excitement of color, but does keep the cost of the book down.

Overall, the book does a good job at presenting the multifaceted nature of the food science discipline. A number of subjects are approached from a variety of perspectives, providing the reader with an integrated view of the subject. For example, the author included both the macro- and micro-nutrient (i.e., carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, water, vitamins and minerals) and commodity (i.e., milk, meat, poultry, fish, cereals grains, fruits and vegetables, candy, and beverages) approaches to studying food ingredients and food products. Other food science texts tend to present one of these approaches over the other; however, Introduction to Food Science includes both approaches.

The book has a few notable limitations. First, because of the wide array of topics covered in the book, the depth on some of the topics is lacking. However, the author regularly provides the reader with additional resources to supplement the students' learning, so with effort this limitation could be overcome.

The second limitation is related to the rapidly changing nature of the Food Science discipline. These rapid changes are not able to be included and/or updated in a textbook. For example, the recent extensive changes to the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) were mentioned in the text, but were not able to be comprehensively included because the changes were not completed at the time the text was printed. An additional example is the tongue taste map (Figure 6-3) presented in the chapter on Quality Factors in Foods. It has recently been shown that the map is not an accurate representation of the distribution of the taste buds on the tongue (Smith VD and Margolskee RF. 2001. Making sense of taste. Scientific American, 284(3):32-39). These limitations are a function of the static nature of textbooks, not necessarily an oversight by the author.

The third limitation is related to the referencing of information presented in the book. The source and/or year of some of the information presented in the text are not given. For example, the reference(s) used to compile the Food Composition Table information provided in the appendix is not given. This lack of reference information may make it difficult for the reader to assess the timeliness and relevance of the information presented.

Despite these limitations discuss above, the book would make a good textbook for an introductory food science course.

Shelly J. Schmidt