FOOD 2010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Food Composition Data, Spectrophotometry

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Food Science
• Course: FOOD 2010
• Professor: Massimo Marcone

Document Summary

Unit 1- introduction to food science and the food industry. Food composition refers to the substances or components found in a food product. The key nutrients that compose foods include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, as well as water, minerals, vitamins, and phytochemicals. Food composition tables are used to evaluate the nutritional value of food products, to perform food consumption surveys, and to estimate the nutritional content of foods and diets. With food composition information, comparing the nutrients and calories in foods is very easy. Newer methods include spectrophotometry, liquid chromatography, and gas chromatography; these allow the determination of fatty acids, cholesterol, amino acids, specific minerals and vitamins. Measured in terms of calories- a metric unit of heat measurement; the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water from. 1 calorie = 4. 1840 joules (j) a large calorie, or kilocalories (cal) = 1,000 calories; used to express amount of energy that a food provides when consumed.