Aims and Objectives of Cooking Food

In pre-hestoric time man used to eat raw food but after discovery of fire, he realized the importance to make the food more palatable and acceptable and he learned the art of cooking with heat or fire.

Definition of cooking: – cooking is the application of heat to food, for the purpose of making it more digestible, safe to eat, more palatable and to change its appearance.   

Cooking is the art, technology, science and craft of Preparing food for consumption and preservation. Their are different technique in cooking like grilling food over an open fire to using electric stove, to baking in various types of oven, reflecting unique environmental, economic and cultural tradition and trend.

In this Blog, we will see the Aims & Objectives of cooking and science behind it.

A. Improve the Taste and food Quantity

How can one improve the taste of food ?

Cooking helps to improve the overalls sensory properties and taste of food like natural flavor, color, texture, appearance and overall acceptability of food. Also we use various methods of cooking like

• Boiling
• Frying
• Steaming
• Pressure cooking & many more

We can use various flavoring Agents like Spices, Herbs, Colors, salt, sugar, citrus flavor etc.

For example:- Roasting groundnut, frying onion and potato, cooking rice improve the flavors, color, and test. Prolonged cooking may lower the flavor as flavoring compound are volatile in nature.

B) Destruction of microorganisms and extension of self life

Microorganisms are present everywhere and some are useful (friendly) in making curd, cheese and bread, Some microorganisms are harmful (can cause diseases) as they produce toxin like

• clostridium
• botulinum
• salmonella.

Thermal Destruction of Microbes – Application of heat during cooking is one of the most effective methods of protecting the food against microorganisms.

Cooking food for specific time at specific temperature may destroy harmful microorganisms in food, reduce naturally occurring anti-nutritional factor,thus making it safe, palatable and digestibility for consumption and increasing the keeping quantity.

Example:- Pasteurization of milk, Canning of food, Vacuum packing

C) Improve the digestibility of food 

How to improve Digestion ?

We can use some simple methods to improve our digestion like

• Avoid drinking water upto 30 min. before and after of meal
• Taking a walk for 5 to 10 min. after a meal if feel like indigestion or acidity
• Drink plenty of water when you wake up early in the morning
• Eat fibrous foods likes green leafy vegetables and fruits, oats to make digestion smooth
• Eat natural pro-biotics like Fermented milk, Curd, Yogurt to increase the number of good bacteria in a gut-wall

 D) Increase variety in diet

Variety can be brought about in meal by using different methods of cooking.

Example:- Wheat flour can be converted into phulka, chapati, paratha etc. Fish can be fried or served with curry, Eggs can be consumed as boiled, fried or in an omelet.

How to add Variety to your diet ?

We can add the diet vatiety in various forms like

• If we consume fruits daily, we can make a juice of them
• If we consume Veggies daily as a salad, we can make a soup of them
• If we consume legumes as a sprouts, we can make a curry of them

Why the variety of diet is important ?

We cannot get all the essential nutrients like proteins, vitamins and minerals from the single food. If we consume the same diet daily, our body get habitual to that same food. But, if we introduce the various food groups in diet, our digestion get improved.

E) Eliminate anti-nutritional factor

What are Anti-nutritional factors ?

Some compounds present in food which get binds with the nutrients required to us and make them unavailable to our body during digestion.

Therefore, it is important to remove this anti-nutritional factors.

Some food grain, fruit and vegetables contain anti-nutritional factor. During cooking the anti-nutritional factor can be destroyed from food, thus increasing the availability of nutrients and making it more safe.

Example :- Raw egg contain Avidin which bind biotin and making it unavailable to body. Cooking destroy this property of Avidin and hence increasing availability of biotin and absorb the nutrients.

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