She is not a review blogger, but she has to "unpack snacks" every day; She is not a food blogger, and she still has a variety of snacks around her every day; She's not a food blogger, but her daily job is snacking. Mei Wan, 32 years old this year, works in the good shop, is a taster - the sensory quality inspector of the good shop, and her daily job is to deal with all kinds of snacks produced by the good shop. Every time a new model comes out, the first to taste it is her, which is probably the happiest profession.
Food sensory quality inspection refers to the comprehensive identification and evaluation of the color, aroma, taste and appearance of food through eyes, nose smell, ear hearing, mouth tasting and hand touch, etc., generally in the sensory quality inspection will be carried out at the same time physical and chemical quality inspection to ensure its nutritional composition and its quality and safety. These are just one of the six layers of quality control before each product of the good shop is put on the cabinet, and it is often preceded by five layers of quality control before the manufacturer's selection, raw material selection, taste customization, production process monitoring, and fast logistics preservation.
1. When eating becomes a technical job, up to 600 pine nuts are eaten at a time
Most people's dream when they were children was to have endless snacks. For Mei Wan, this dream has come true. She has endless snacks every day, but snacking is a technical job for her, not simply eating snacks into her stomach.
Recently, the polar news reporter met Mei Wan at the good shop, she was thin and wearing a blue work hat, and she was sampling the goods coming out of the factory. In 2014, after graduating from Hubei University of Technology majoring in food science and engineering, Mei Wan came to the good shop, working as a sensory quality inspector, dealing with products every day.
When the reporter came to the testing room, she saw some pine nuts stacked in front of her, and she was measuring the length of pine nuts with a vernier caliper. Mei Wan said that this is a batch of goods that have just been produced from the workshop, and they are conducting random inspections of pine nuts, which need to be inspected in various aspects such as shape and taste, and qualified pine nuts have set standards. I saw that every time she measured a pine nut, she recorded it at hand. According to the requirements, taking the Northeast red pine as an example, they must eat 200 at one time, and if they eat 4 out of every 100 that do not meet the standard, they must be retested, and the retest needs to double the pine nuts. Mei Wan introduced that her most tested was 600 pine nuts, and after eating, she felt full. Like cake products, they have to eat at least 5 bags at a time, each bite has to fill their mouths, and they have to swallow, and it is generally difficult to eat lunch after eating.
"If the results are still not satisfactory after 3 retests, then this batch of products will have to be returned, so the tasting is very strict, and the happiness of eating snacks is different by chewing slowly to detect the subtleties." Mei Wan said with a smile.
What exactly is it to eat snacks? Mei Wan explained that they have set standard samples for all products, these standards are tested by the market, and they need to compare the products produced with standard samples, whether the taste, appearance, flavor, seasonings and other aspects meet the standard samples. To this end, they must always train to try standard samples and keep every detail firmly in mind.
"Each product has an exclusive evaluation standard, so we must have a grasp of all the different products, be able to clearly describe the attributes of the product, understand what the core indicators of each product are, and have a scale in mind." Mei Wan said that she used to write a file on the taste of the product, so that she could familiarize herself with and remember the taste as soon as possible, and through deliberate practice, repeatedly stimulate her brain.
Mei Wan took eating dried mangoes as an example, when ordinary consumers eat dried mangoes, the most common feeling is whether the taste is in line with personal preferences. For tasters, tasting is a rigorous work, they randomly take samples and put them on the porcelain plate, after opening the bag, first smell whether there is a peculiar smell, and then see whether the dry color of the mango meets the standard, because the ripeness of the mango leads to different colors, which need to be compared with the color card. After checking the color, check the length and width of the dried mango, measure the record one by one with a vernier caliper, and then touch the dried mango with your hand to feel the thickness of the dried mango, because the bite feeling caused by different thicknesses is different. Finally, by chewing slowly, feel the sweetness and sour taste of dried mango, whether the taste is soft, whether there are fine strands, how it feels to eat in the middle, whether the aftertaste is too sour and too sweet, and so on.
2. Go to work on an empty stomach and eat enough to get off work, and walk quickly every day to consume food
Mei Wan has to deal with different products every day, involving various types of products such as puffed, cakes, nuts, etc., what products come to the factory on the same day, can not choose freely, at most to eat 14 varieties of more than 20 types of products a day. The amount of food tasted in the morning exceeded 5 pounds, and sometimes the total calories of the food tasted in the morning exceeded 8400 kilojoules.
Does a taster have to be a big stomach? Mei Wan denied this statement, like other evaluation work, tasters have requirements for taste and smell, select people with a better sense of taste, can distinguish basic taste, sensitive to sour, sweet, salty, etc., not required to be a big stomach king.
In order to ensure the daily work status, Mei Wan said that she generally eats very little breakfast, and she is full after trying it all day, and basically does not eat dinner, which can be described as "going to work on an empty stomach and eating and leaving work", and she also has to exercise every day after returning home to promote digestion. "Snacking too much and eating too much is also a happy annoyance." Mei Wan said with a smile. She said that during the peak sales season, the quality inspection task was heavy, and the tasting volume was very large, and once they tried it until 11 p.m.
Do you feel tired from eating the same thing every day? Mei Wan said that they have a sampling list and do not eat repeated things every day, and the same product is eaten repeatedly, and the number of occurrences is small, so the fatigue is good. For example, when encountering the same product for continuous tasting, tasters will exchange varieties and cross-taste with each other.
3. Forget your own preferences, and eat food you don't like
Everyone has their own food preferences, does preference affect judgment? Are tasters susceptible to subjective preferences?
The reporter did two sets of experiments at the scene, the first experiment, the food in the same package of snacks was divided into four small portions, and without giving the standard sample to taste and without telling the answer, Mei Wan and the photojournalist were asked to taste it at the same time. After Mei Wan ate it, she thought that it was from the same product, although there were individual differences, but within the standard sample range, it belonged to the same product. The photojournalist said it was four different products because he felt the taste was different.
In the second experiment, Mei Wan and the photojournalist were asked to taste a standard sample of one product at the same time, and then asked them to try four copies of the product, which included standard samples and substandard products. The photojournalist believed that three of them were substandard, each of which he liked, and only one was a standard sample, and Mei Wan accurately found two of the standard samples.
Mei Wan explained that snacks are different from other products, due to the different growth environments of raw materials, which will cause great individual differences, although the same package of products, the selection is selected according to the highest standards, but due to individual differences, there will still be slight differences. Therefore, the non-conforming product is not a problem with the product quality itself, but only a sample that does not meet the standard. Compared to dry species, each fruit is different, acidity, sweetness is different, if the taster prefers sweet, although the same package of products is taken out, if he is affected by personal preferences, it will affect his judgment of the product. Therefore, in the process of tasting, tasters need to stand in an objective position, overcome personal preferences, taste each food, make a fair evaluation within the standard range according to the whole, and remember the taste of the standard sample. "If you come across something you like to eat, but it doesn't match the standard, then you must organize a re-inspection." Mei Wan said.
What if I eat food I don't like? Mei Wan said that she doesn't like to eat seafood and spicy food, but she will still insist on tasting, "We as a taster must be responsible for the product, if there is an abnormality and we do not try it, let the unqualified product flow out, that is their own dereliction of duty, we must eliminate personal subjective factors, in order to be responsible for consumers." In addition to the taster tasting, Mei Wan said that they also have a set of test equipment, which will evaluate the moisture, acidity and so on of the product. (Chutiandu Daily polar news reporter Sun Tingting, photojournalist Xiao Hao)