Product Development Project

Planning Report: Tuna Apple Crisp Modification

Science of Food

Skill Area: Food

Assignment Title: Product Development Project

What I learned: 

This assignment helped me understand how to plan out a food modification, test the product using different measuring devices (spectrophotometer, penetrometer, etc), and hold a taste testing to discover consumer acceptance. I also learned about different types of sensory evaluation tests and qualitative descriptive analysis. 

Reflection to assignment: 

This assignment was fascinating because it allowed me to chose a recipe that used a culturally diverse fruit and modify it to make it healthier. We chose the prickly pear cactus as a cultural fruit because we had no history with the fruit and thought it would be interesting to try it out. We then chose to make it healthier by cutting out the sugar and replacing it with splenda and exchanging white flour for whole wheat flour. 

Relevance to the profession:

This assignment is relevant to the dietetics profession because it proves that I am capable of planning out a research project to test different variables on test subjects.