Food Science Quiz 5
What this quiz covers
A batch of jelly that weeps on the shelf, a can that corrodes from the inside, a sausage emulsion that breaks in the smokehouse — these are the failures that eat a manufacturer’s margin and a brand’s reputation. Behind each one sits a number somebody had to know: the lactic-acid range that marks acid whey, the F-value that proves a can is safe, the gas mix that keeps a modified-atmosphere pack from swelling. Exam rooms know this too — GATE, JRF, and university food-science papers pull directly from this territory, and QA interviews lean on it heavily.
This quiz moves across preservation science, fermentation, and quality systems. What makes jelly weep (syneresis)? Which gases genuinely protect packaged food? How do plant enzymes tenderize meat? Where does phytic acid hide, and what is aspartame actually made of? Which microbes ferment sauerkraut, why F-values matter in canning, what the Dole process is, and where Six Sigma touches food safety — twenty questions, each one a working fact you will meet again.
The science inside the questions
Some of these are memorized figures — the IU conversion for beta-carotene, the fat and SNF standards for buffalo milk, the lactic-acid band for acid whey. Others are mechanisms: how soluble fiber drags cholesterol down, why intermediate-moisture foods brown and oxidize faster than dry ones, how Leuconostoc mesenteroides hands the sauerkraut vat over to Lactobacillus plantarum. The figures win exam marks; the mechanisms win job interviews. Both are here, and the quiz mixes them the way real papers do.
How to use this quiz
You get twenty seconds per question and one attempt each — read carefully, commit, move on. Afterwards, take every miss apart until you can explain it in your own words, then retake after a few days. The questions that still sting on the second run are your real study list.
Answer explanations
Worked through the quiz? Here is why each correct answer is correct — the concept behind it, in plain terms.
- The syneresis of jelly is due to
Correct answer: all — the quiz marks “all” as the intended answer: excess acid degrades the pectin network, high storage temperature accelerates gel contraction, and poor sealing conditions compound the damage — together they drive syneresis, the weeping of liquid from the gel. - Which of the following is an inert gas
Correct answer: N2 — nitrogen is the inert gas of food packaging: it displaces oxygen without reacting with the food, unlike O2, CO, or CO2, each of which interacts chemically with the product. - Which of the following is an enzyme used for tenderization of meat to make it softer
Correct answer: all — papain (papaya), bromelain (pineapple), and actinidin (kiwi) are all proteolytic enzymes used to tenderize meat, each breaking down muscle proteins and collagen. - The antinuritional factor in cereals is
Correct answer: phytic acid — phytic acid in cereal bran chelates iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium, blocking their absorption — the classic antinutritional factor of cereals. - The cholesterol levels in body can be reduced by
Correct answer: all — soluble fiber, including beta glucan, lowers LDL cholesterol by binding bile acids and forcing the liver to pull cholesterol from the blood; isoflavones add a complementary lipid-lowering effect. - Aspartame, an artificial sweetener, is formed of
Correct answer: aspartic acid and phenylalanine — aspartame is the methyl ester of the dipeptide aspartyl-phenylalanine — which is exactly why products carrying it must warn people with phenylketonuria. - Acid whey has lactic acid content of
Correct answer: 6-10% — the quiz’s intended answer is 6–10%: acid whey carries far more lactic acid than sweet whey because lactose is fermented to lactic acid during the coagulation step. - One IU of beta-carotene is equivalent to
Correct answer: 0.6mcg beta-carotene — one IU of beta-carotene equals 0.6 mcg — six times the weight of an IU of retinol (0.3 mcg), because beta-carotene converts to vitamin A inefficiently. - Most common type of food borne disease is by micro-organism
Correct answer: Salmonella — Salmonella leads the foodborne-disease charts among these options: a Gram-negative enteric pathogen carried by poultry, eggs, and cross-contaminated produce. - Canning is performed in which type of packaging material
Correct answer: tin plated steel cans — canning runs in tin-plated steel (tinplate): the tin layer protects the steel, and as a bonus it scavenges residual oxygen inside the sealed can. - Which micro-organisms are involved in sauerkraut preparation
Correct answer: Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactobacillus plantarum — sauerkraut fermentation starts with Leuconostoc mesenteroides (heterofermentative: it makes CO2 and acids that purge oxygen) and finishes with the acid-tolerant Lactobacillus plantarum driving the pH down toward 3.5. - Common problem occurring in intermediate moisture foods is
Correct answer: both (b) and (c) — intermediate-moisture foods (water activity roughly 0.6–0.9) sit at the peak of the Maillard browning curve while still admitting enough oxygen for lipid oxidation — so non-enzymatic browning and oxidation are the twin enemies. - Six sigma is a set of techniques for
Correct answer: food safety — Six Sigma is a data-driven quality methodology for cutting process variation and defects; among these options, its intended application is the food-safety system, where reducing variation means reducing hazards. - Which of the following technique is used in flavor extraction
Correct answer: all — supercritical fluid extraction (CO2), molecular distillation, and liquid–liquid countercurrent extraction are all real flavor-extraction techniques, each trading off heat sensitivity, selectivity, and scale. - F-value holds importance in case of
Correct answer: canning — the F-value is the integrated lethality of a thermal process at 121.1°C — the language of canning, where it proves the 12-D Clostridium botulinum cook was actually achieved. - Fat and SNF standards for buffalo milk are
Correct answer: 6.0% and 9.0% — the standards require buffalo milk to carry minimum 6.0% fat and 9.0% solids-not-fat — buffalo milk runs naturally richer than cow milk. - Base material used for beer making is
Correct answer: barley — barley is beer’s base material: malted, mashed, and fermented; wheat and rice play supporting roles in some styles. - Dole process is related to
Correct answer: aseptic canning — the Dole process is an aseptic canning system: product sterilized separately, then filled into sterile containers under sterile conditions. - Egg whites are rich source of
Correct answer: all — the quiz marks “all” as the intended answer for vitamin D, zinc, and selenium; egg whites are a genuine selenium source and carry useful minerals alongside their protein. - Yellow color of egg yolk is due to
Correct answer: both — yolk yellow comes from the xanthophylls lutein and zeaxanthin, deposited from the hen’s feed — richer feed, deeper yolk.