Produto: cocktail de frutas brasileiro

Joaquim Vitor da Paz Neto ID: #57

FDSC 110 - The Science of Food Section: 04

Scientific Method Final Paper

Product: Brazilian Fruit Cocktail

Introduction

According to Jean Anderson (1997), fruit cocktail is a sweetened mixed of assorted diced fruits served in a decorative stemmed glass as a dessert or snack. In addition, he states that this product was first made in the USA in the mid-19th century as an alternative to supply the demand of Vitamin C.

Being a mix of many fruits, fruit cocktail is a source of fiber and vitamins, besides being tasty and refreshing. Yet, there are several advantages of eating this product often. For example, the presence of A, C, and E vitamins protect against the cellular aging and the fruit minerals are proper for the proper functioning of the body (Equipe Bemol em culinária, n.d).

In Brazil, fruit cocktail is very popular because of the price, hot climate all year around, plus being a health food. There, this product is sold in everywhere: markets, ice cream shops, street vendors, besides being homemade. In addition to that, there are many types of fruit cocktail: with milk, or chocolate powder, with ice cream or chocolate, plus orange, or passion fruit juice. According to Ana Luisa Vieira (n.d), a fun fact happened when a Sweden tourist tasted a Brazilian fruit cocktail by the first time and got impressed because of the amount of the ingredients used: Banana, guava, mango, papaya, passion fruit, and sugar. He loved it.

Seeking increase product shelf life and achieve new markets, fruit cocktail started being processed in industries. Today, people can consume fruit cocktail in anywhere around the world. The most commonly used processing is canning, that is cheap, does not allow compounds migration to the food, is user friendly, support heat treatment, and preserves the taste of food.

The goal of this paper is develop a hypothesis about how the product characteristic changes if we switch the amount of ingredients, or the type of packaging.

 

The scientific method

Potential Independent Variables

• Sugar - Decrease

• Water - Increase

• Fruits (Banana, guava, mango, passion fruit, papaya) - Increase

• Type of packaging - Can

• Size of fruit pieces - Increase

• Regularity of fruit pieces - Decrease

• Ratio of fruits – More banana

Independent Variable (Vi)

• Sugar

Note: If we decrease the amount of sugar, it will influence in the shelf life and flavor of the product.

Dependent Variables (Vd)

• Color

 Loss of color can be measured through a Colorimeter

• Overall Flavor

 Less sweetness can be measured through Sensory Analysis

• Firmness/softness

 Can be measured through Sensory Analysis and Texture Analyzer

Control Variable (Vc)

• Original Sugar Amount

Constant Conditions

• Remaining ingredients and all processing steps kept the same.

Hypothesis

Decreasing the amount of sugar (that is the independent variable) and increase the quantity of water will influence the overall flavor and aroma of the product. Consumers will probably reject a fruit cocktail sweeter and more dilute.