Food Technology Glossary

A type of fungus that grows as fuzzy patches on food, often green, white, or black, usually a sign that the food has spoiled.

A fluid whose shear stress is directly proportional to shear rate, so viscosity is independent of shear.

Difficulty seeing in low light or darkness, most often caused by a deficiency of Vitamin A.

A condition of having excess body fat built up over time, usually from eating more energy than the body uses, which raises the risk of other diseases.

Heating food by passing an electric current directly through it, so the food itself acts like a resistor and heats evenly from the inside.

The natural movement of water from a less concentrated solution to a more concentrated one, through a membrane, without needing outside energy.

A method of partly drying food by soaking it in a strong sugar or salt solution, which pulls water out of the food by osmosis.

The combined conductance of all resistances between two fluids — convective films, wall conduction and fouling — used as Q = UAΔTlm.

Partly boiling paddy (rice with its husk) before milling, which pushes nutrients from the bran into the grain and makes the rice firmer after cooking.

A mild heat treatment that destroys vegetative pathogens and reduces spoilage organisms, without eliminating spores. Milk: LTLT 63 °C for 30 min, or HTST 72 °C for 15 s.

A structural polysaccharide of plant cell walls based on galacturonic acid. High-methoxyl pectin (DE > 50%) gels with sugar and acid; low-methoxyl pectin gels with calcium.

A test for lactoperoxidase, used to confirm that milk has not been over-heated.