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Abstract
The accomplishments of workers in the fields of horticulture and food technology during the last few decades are indisputable and impressive. The horticulturist has performed wonders in crop improvement and yields. The food technologist has brought an ever-increasing variety of foods to the consumer at reasonable prices. Together they have made our diet independent of season and location.
Abstract
Food quality is generally expressed through its three components: color or appearance, flavor, and texture. Each of these are elusive quantities difficult to define. Texture has often been characterized by the use of descriptive terms such as hardness, mealiness, and grittiness (Table 1), depending on the product being considered and the particular textural component being characterized. These terms have the ability of evoking relative responses in the mind, but cannot provide quantitative information in terms of measurable physical properties. The terms elasticity, plasticity, and viscosity can often provide such information, but unfortunately, do not lend themselves easily to applications in such complex, often heterogeneous, systems as foods. The various devices for measurement of textural parameters represent a compromise between the descriptive, qualitative properties and the absolute descriptions that rest on universal units of force, time, and distance. Under strictly defined conditions, these instruments are capable of providing measurements that can serve as valuable guides in evaluating effects of treatments if they are properly based statistically. On the other hand, since microscopic sample sizes are required, little information is obtained concerning the finer details of structure or the relative importance of individual chemical entities.
Abstract
Fertilization of tomato and sweetcorn seedlings with NH4-N generally resulted in growth reduction as well as reduced contents of Ca and Mg in the tissues to deficient or nearly deficient levels. The effects were more pronounced on tomatoes than on corn. Fertilization of plants, with a combination of NO3 + NH4-N resulted in Ca and Mg levels in the tissue intermediate between that of plants receiving NH4-N or NO3-N. Ammonium N applied during fruiting of tomato plants resulted in rapid development of blossom-end rot of the fruit, probably due to the influence of NH4-N on Ca uptake.