Tasting of Chocolates, Wine at the Fourth Gourmet Seminar

The keys to be taken into account for alimentary innocuousness were revealed on Wednesday by Doctor Ivania Rodríguez, from the Food Industry’s Research Institute, during the lecture entitled Cold Chain and Food Quality.

The specialist mentioned some of the ways the products we eat can get spoiled, such as the action of living organisms, the biological activity of food or chemical processes, physical actions of the environment such as impacts or physical damage,  temperature, light and radiations.

Likewise, she stressed that food’s storage conditions depend, among other things, on the organoleptic characteristics, temperature, relative humidity, preservation time and hygiene.

When talking about the cold chain, she pointed out that the processes of production, handling, storage, transportation and commercialization of perishable products, under controlled temperature conditions, relative humidity and hygiene, are the ones to guarantee the preservation of their characteristics until the final consumption.

Furthermore, she asserted that the transportation involves all elements of the cold chain and its breaking point, although the storage and handling also have certain influence.

Dr. María Cristina Jorge, from the same scientific entity, talked about the importance of temperature in the process of chocolate. Among other elements, she underlined that the phenomenon of crystallization of chocolate’s constituent oily system, its processing and storage, have direct influence on technologic, economic and sensorial attributes.

The day came to an end with a special comparative tasting session of chocolate in different preservation states, due to violations on the cold chain, and a pairing with red wine.