IS FOOD TASTE REALLY CHANGING? Food is essential to human survival and its consumption largely depends on the taste and aroma associated with various kinds of foods. But modernity appears to have significantly altered the natural tastes and aroma that come with consumption of certain foods as examined in this report. The issue of changing food taste and aroma is something very many people have probably not spared a breathe to think about. The question is; are some foods actually changing from their usual natural and delicious taste or enticing aroma? If so, what could be the cause of this change? “Now I no longer perceive the aroma of foods like I used to,” a middle-aged man in Nyanya market, Abuja, who does not want her name in print said. “I recall then when we were in secondary school, we would go near the kitchen to perceive the aroma of what was being cooked because it was so good. But it is not so anymore. I think it is global warming that is the cause”, she added. Some food traders interviewed by Weekly Trust attributed these changes to the use of modern fertilizer and methods of food preservation. A fruit trader, Mrs. Rosaline Ameh said, “I think maybe the fertilizer being applied to food crops is too much. Some people even apply chemicals to unripe fruits; so this could affect the taste.” But a customer remarked that people who get too used to eating a particular meal could experience loss of its taste or sick persons could also suffer same, which he said, is natural with all human beings “In the village, even if it is fresh okro being cooked, you would be able to perceive the aroma,” Mr. Felix Agwu, a trader in food stuff said. “Today there exist both the native and modern food products. The okro grown in the city does not give the same taste compared with that grown in the villages. He also imagined that there must have been too much of fertilizer in today’s crops. Food products grown in the city attract weevils because of the chemicals used to serve as preservatives. Citing an example, Agwu said; “In the case of Oha leaf, the tree is not allowed to rest in the city, as it is eaten all the times. But usually, the tree does not grow fresh leaves during the raining season until it is harmattan. In the village, it is allowed to rest until the raining season is over which makes the leaves richer. In the case of bitter leaf, some people wash it and preserve it for a week which makes it lose its taste and become mere chaff.” A house-wife who simply identified herself as Mummy Dammy said she recently made use of the refined rice popularly known as ‘foreign rice’. “It decays quickly unlike the local rice which lasts over a longer period of time after being cooked,” She further added; “the taste of the modern rice is not as good as that of the local rice. You boil the modern rice and wonder if it is flour you are cooking. Yam on the other hand looks good on the outside and decays inside. Or is it climate change that causes this?” But Dr. Bwala Joy of Zakli hospital in Utako, Abuja, said she is not aware of any change in aroma or food taste. “People cook in different ways. Spices, quantity of salt and other ingredients could possibly be responsible for the change in taste and aroma”. But Dr. Nuhu Butawa, a Public Health physician practicing in Kaduna told Weekly Trust that those that experience such conditions could have health problems affecting their sense of smell or taste. However, experts have attributed the growing change in food taste to genetic and environmental factors in the quest for man’s insatiable desire for improved life. Dr. Lucky Omoigui, a molecular scientist from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, emphasized that the use of fertilizer to enhance soil fertility for optimal crop yield had in no small way impacted on the taste of food for years. According to him, the equation of life itself is balanced with the science genetic application of materials for possible growth of food crops and the ever changing environment of man which to a large extent determines his taste. He said, “The sort of aroma people perceive in food these days is quite different and changing with time because of the application of genetic materials to the food crops which separates the taste of organic food from what is obtainable today.” The varsity don however insisted that despite the changes in taste, the nutritional quality of today’s food is higher and better than organic or naturally grown food crops. “This is because we as scientists are concerned about nutritional qualities during the process of developing crop seeds,” he said. In the same vein, Dr. Chimeziri Anderson of Benue State Health Management Board identified fabricated food and spices, which are no longer fresh or overly processed as the major reason for change in food tastes in recent times when compared with what it used to be some decades ago. “In those days, food items were acquired from very natural sources and prepared with ‘fire wood’ but today the level of heat applied on them through the use of gas cookers, kerosene stoves or electric boilers gives the prepared meals a different aroma from what was obtained in the past”, Anderson stated. Anderson also explained that the consequences of a changing life and technology informs people’s taste such that some people prefer the aroma of modern spices to those of yester-years. “Genetically, man is changing. The old man is not like the modern man. They both differ in their reasoning and taste for food,” he stressed. Moreover, he added that the increase in various ailments such as diabetes has changed most peoples’ preferred lifestyles to affect their taste and choices of food. On her part, a nutritionist, Keziah Chiedozie opined that processing and preservation has adversely affected the aroma of today’s food during preparation. “Our foods are over-processed and artificially preserved such that it loses its nutrients along the line. People these days prefer what I call micro-wave, quick and fast foods,” she noted, adding that, fast foods too are often seasoned with over- processed spices, which falls short of essential nutrients evident in food that promotes healthy living and thus, allows diseases. In his own view, a local farmer, Matthew Wantu said that the traditional aroma associated with home cooking has been compromised by modern processed spices. He cited instances with the local locust beans-spice which is now being replaced with food seasonings like maggi cubes or knorr. “Certainly, these are two different things which evolved following the trends of time. So, that it produces separate and distinct aroma.” Wantu maintained also that the chemical application to boost soil nutrients for farm produce in some ways largely impact on the crops which when cooked makes the aroma differ from how it was decades ago. In a related development, a new research suggests that the size, weight, shape and color of your cutlery can affect how food tastes. In the research, participants thought white yogurt tasted sweeter than pink-colored yogurt when eaten from a white spoon, but the reverse was true when a black spoon was used. These findings could help people improve their eating habits by reducing portion sizes or the amount of salt they add to their food, the researchers said. “How we experience food is a multisensory experience involving taste, the feel of the food in our mouths, aroma and the feasting of our eyes,” said Vanessa Harrar and Charles Spence of the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. “Even before we put food into our mouths, our brains have made a judgment about it, which affects our overall experience.” When participants were offered cheese on a knife, spoon, fork or toothpick, they said the cheese from the knife tasted saltiest, according to the study, which was published in the journal Flavour
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 14:28:52 +0000
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