Basic Foods I: Frozen Desserts, Sugar Products, and Milk Products

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering food science principles of frozen foods, sugars and sweeteners, and milk products based on Modules 2, 3, and 4.

Freezing

A food preservation method where food temperature is reduced below its freezing point, causing much of its water to turn into ice to slow or halt microbial proliferation and enzymatic deterioration.

Blanching

A pre-treatment process involving briefly heating vegetables in steam or boiling water followed by rapid cooling to inactivate enzymes, preserve color, lessen off-flavors, decrease surface microbes, and boost storage stability.

Slow Freezing

A freezing method characterized by a slow rate of temperature reduction that results in the formation of large ice crystals, which can cause significant cellular damage to food tissues.

Quick Freezing

A rapid freezing process that promotes the formation of numerous small ice crystals within food tissues, resulting in superior texture retention compared to slow freezing.

Individual Quick Freezing (IQF)

A freezing technique in which separate food pieces are frozen individually rather than fused together into a single solid block.

Stabilizers (in Frozen Foods)

Hydrocolloids such as guar gum, locust bean gum, carrageenan, and xanthan gum added to control ice crystal development, enhance viscosity, impede rapid melting, and preserve a smooth texture.

Freezing Point Depression

The reduction of a food's freezing threshold below $0^\circ\text{C}$ caused by the presence of dissolved solutes including sugars, salts, minerals, proteins, and organic acids.

Freeze-Thaw Cycle

Repeated temperature fluctuations causing partial melting followed by refreezing, leading to moisture migration, textural breakdown, and ice crystal growth.

Freezer Burn

A surface defect caused by moisture loss and dehydration due to poor packaging, appearing as dry, grayish or whitish patches on frozen food.

Drip Loss

The liquid exudate released from frozen foods such as meat, fish, and fruits upon thawing, aggravated by slow freezing and freeze-thaw cycles.

Sugar (Refined Sucrose)

The simplest digestible carbohydrate, composed of sweet crystalline organic compounds; unqualified table sugar contains $99.9\%$ sucrose derived from sugar cane or sugar beets.

Sanding Sugar

A market form of sugar characterized by coarse granulation, primarily utilized for decorative applications.

Superfine Sugar

Specially screened sugar consisting of uniformly fine grains processed for rapid dissolution in liquids.

Powdered Sugar

Granulated sucrose mechanically milled into a fine powder, often mixed with small amounts of cornstarch to inhibit caking; also called castor or confectioner's sugar.

Lump Sugar

Sugar formed by compressing moistened sugar crystals into loaf shapes, hardening them, and slicing them into cubes or tablets.

Turbinado Sugar

A coarse-crystal raw table sugar that retains a proportion of natural molasses, yielding a light golden tint and characteristic flavor.

Raw Brown Sugar

An unrefined sugar product separated from molasses, displaying dark, coarse, and tacky crystals; known locally in the Visayas as muscovado or kinugay.

Panutsa

A crude domestic sugar made by condensing sugar cane extract into thick brown syrup and setting it in halved coconut shells into solid hemispheres; also called sinakab or binagol.

Washed Sugar

Sucrose crystals halted one phase prior to full refining, displaying a faint straw hue evident when viewed next to plain white bond paper.

Palm Sugar

A sweetener derived from the sap of palm trees such as coconut or sago palms, known regionally in Southeast Asia as jaggery or gur.

Cane Syrup

A syrup manufactured by boiling sugarcane sap to a concentration containing not more than $65\%$ to $70\%$ mixed sugars, $30\%$ water, and $2.5\%$ ash.

Molasses

The thick residue left after sucrose crystals are extracted from concentrated cane or beet juice, consisting of up to $70\%$ sugars, at most $25\%$ water, and at most $5\%$ ash.

Refiner's Syrup

The residual liquid remaining after sucrose crystallization during the refining process, carrying a brown sugar flavor and less than $25\%$ moisture.

Sorghum Syrup

A syrup prepared from the juice of sorghum grass without extracting sugar crystals, matching cane syrup in total sugar content while resembling molasses in appearance.

Honey (Pulut Pukyutan)

An invert sugar solution concentrated by honeybees from floral nectar, containing roughly $40\%$ fructose, $35\%$ glucose, $2\%$ to $8\%$ sucrose, and $20\%$ water; unsafe for infants due to Clostridium botulinum spores.

Corn Syrup

A viscous liquid containing maltose, dextrin, dextrose, and higher polysaccharides; conventional formulations provide approximately $15\%$ sugars ($35\%$ dextrose and $15\%$ maltose).

Hygroscopic Ability

The property of sugars, particularly in finely ground or powdered states, to absorb and retain atmospheric moisture.

Caramelization

The thermal degradation of dry or concentrated sugar heated past its melting point, producing characteristic brown pigments and aromas in the absence of amino acids.

Maillard Reaction

A non-enzymatic browning reaction between reducing sugars and proteins or free amino acids under heat, yielding complex roasted aromas and color.

Sugar Hydrolysis (Inversion)

The chemical cleavage of the disaccharide sucrose into equimolar amounts of glucose and fructose (invert sugar) catalyzed by acid, enzymes (invertase), or heat.

Humectant

A functional role of sugar in food formulation where it binds and retains water molecules, preventing premature drying in baked goods and soft confections.

Peptizing Agent

The functional property of sugar that stabilizes and disperses colloidal ingredients to maintain uniform, smooth textures in confectionery and batters.

Synthetic Sweeteners

Non-nutritive, high-intensity sweetening agents defined by the FDA as possessing less than $20\%$ of the caloric content of sucrose per equivalent sweetening unit.

Aspartame

A high-intensity sweetener $160\text{--}220\times$ sweeter than sucrose that degrades under prolonged high-temperature heating and poses a metabolic hazard to individuals with phenylketonuria (PKU).

Rebaudioside A

A heat-stable sweetener derived from the stevia plant with a relative sweetness of $200\text{--}300\times$ sucrose, featuring a licorice-like aftertaste and an ADI of $12\,\text{mg/kg/day}$.

Sucralose

A heat-stable artificial sweetener $600\times$ sweeter than sucrose that displays good aqueous solubility and leaves no bitter aftertaste.

Milk

A nutrient-dense biological fluid secreted by the mammary glands of mammals, consisting primarily of cow's milk in commercial use and carabao's milk for traditional Philippine dairy goods.

Cow's Milk Composition

The average nutritional breakdown of whole cow's milk: approximately $87\%$ water, $5\%$ carbohydrates, $3\text{--}4\%$ fat, and $4\%$ protein, alongside minor minerals and vitamins.

Lactose

The primary carbohydrate found in mammalian milk, functioning as a reducing disaccharide composed of glucose and galactose units.

Casein

The predominant phosphoprotein fraction in cow's milk that coagulates in the presence of acid or rennet enzymes to form the structural curd in cheesemaking.

Whey Proteins

The soluble protein fraction that remains dispersed in the serum or liquid phase after casein precipitates during curd formation.

Milk Emulsion

The physical state of milk fat suspended as microscopic globules throughout the continuous aqueous phase, imparting creaminess and body.

UHT Milk

Milk subjected to ultra-high temperature thermal processing for a brief duration and packaged aseptically, enabling prolonged room-temperature storage until unsealed.

Evaporated Milk

A concentrated, sterilized canned milk product produced by thermally removing a significant fraction of water from whole milk.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

A dense, viscous milk concentrate prepared by removing water and incorporating substantial levels of sucrose to inhibit microbial spoilage.

Butter

A dairy spread created by mechanically churning cream, which ruptures fat globules and aggregates them away from the liquid buttermilk fraction.

Buttermilk

The liquid remaining after churning cream into butter, or a commercial cultured fluid milk product soured via bacterial fermentation.

Yogurt

A fermented dairy food produced by bacterial cultures that convert lactose into lactic acid, depressing the pH and coagulating proteins into a gel.

Cheese

A solid or semi-solid food made by coagulating milk proteins (chiefly casein) via acid or enzymes and draining the liquid whey away from the curd.

Roux

A cooked mixture of equal parts butter fat and flour starch, used as the thickening agent for milk in white sauce or béchamel preparation.

Milk Curdling

The destabilization and aggregation of milk casein into clumps triggered by exposure to acid, proteolytic enzymes, or elevated temperatures.