Who wants to think about how chocolate is made when eating it? Does it matter how firm the chocolate is, how sweet or intensely flavored? Of course it does, but chocolate eaters don’t think about that. It’s up to food science professionals to make sure that the chocolate being produced has the right amount of flavor, the best texture, the optimal mixture of ingredients to make the gustatory experience the best it can be.
“Food science,” according to the Institute of Food Technologists, is “the study of the physical, biological, and chemical makeup of food, and the concepts underlying food processing.” In the spring 2015 semester, Penn State Altoona offered an introductory course in food science for the first time. Lynn Dalby, instructor and science lab coordinator, says it was her love of doing labs that led her to incorporate a lab into her Food Science 200 course. “Hands-on is very important to the students,” she explains.
The labs sound more like a cooking class than a science class, but the two subjects aren’t that far apart—after all, cooking requires chemical reactions. In Dalby’s class, “We did an emulsion lab. We tried to make mayonnaise. We tried to make vinaigrettes using mustard and honey. I had them mix the oil and the water and asked which one binds them together better. Then I did a lecture on how emulsifiers bind liquid and oil together, and they could understand.”
Jerry Moore, co-owner of Dutch Hill Chocolates in Altoona, showing student Ryan White how to operate the chocolate enrobing machine, which coats the cream filling with the milk chocolate.
For a lesson on lipids, Dalby says, “we took fat free milk, whole milk, and half and half. We added Hershey’s syrup and did taste tests,” with the students noting how the fat content made a difference in the color of the milk, the flavor, and how much syrup remained on the bottom of the glass.
The class also toured two local chocolate-making establishments, Dutch Hill Chocolates in Altoona and Gardners Candies in Tyrone, to learn about how chocolate is made. “When we went to Gardners,” Dalby notes, “it was commercial, with larger equipment. We were able to see the larger process.”
Sophomore Hannah Swope, a student in Dalby’s class, says she chose food science as a major because of its “real-life applications. I really liked chemistry in high school but the math was more than I could handle.” Her experience in Dalby’s food lab has been a good one, she says, despite her mayonnaise results: “Ours didn’t turn out real well. It never got thick.”
During the semester the class worked on a project with a local business, Active Hydration. The company has been working to develop a new hydration drink called Formula 5. Dalby says that company representatives told her that “once they started making samples people thought of it more as a healthy alternative to soda because of the carbonation. They’re coming out with flavors now—orange, cherry, grape, lemon-lime, and ginger ale—but it’s not yet available.” The company asked the food science students for input on names for the product, labeling ideas, and potential markets. Students in the class participated in taste-testing the product and also carried out a “sensory evaluation” phase so they could receive subjective data on the product.
Sam Phillips, president of Gardners Candies, speaking to Penn State Altoona food science students in the “kitchen area” at Gardners.
Swope may have learned the most important business lesson of all during the Active Hydration study. She says, no matter what was considered, “cost wins overall.” But she also recognizes that paying close attention to our food sources is imperative: “People don’t realize the importance of food science.” There is a growing need for more people to work in management of food, food packaging, and food safety.” As the world gets smaller and the demand for food to support our growing population gets larger, food science will most certainly play a significant role.
—Therese Boyd, ’79