24 Healthy Cooking in Food Service

N. Chellam

1.   Introduction

Cooking is an art and science of making inedible food material into an edible one. It includes the process of cooking food and presenting them in an attractive manner.

As food is the reservoir of all vital elements that are required for the human health cooking seeks special attention on conserving the basic principles without much damage during and after preparation.

So, healthy cooking practices are the need of the hour not only for individual also for public food production industries as it caters the need of diverse crowd more curious about eating for wellness along with global food exploration .

2. Objectives:

From this chapter you will be able to know

• The importance of healthy cooking in food service industries.
• Method of making healthy foods.
• Contraindications of unhealthy cooking.

3.  What is cooking?

Cooking is the process of subjecting food into the action of heat or mechanical blending by combining one food with its favorite elementary ingredients to make it more attractive, aromatic, tasty and enjoyable to serve and eat. Those foods can easily get digested need not require application of heat. But then they are modified into edible form. Whereas foods of more complex blend needs more processing to get them ready to eat. Here comes cooking and that does adequate justice to food to get more organoleptic favors and health constituents.

4. Methods of cooking:

All the methods of cooking depend upon one or more of the three principles of heat transfer. The various methods of cooking are divided into three groups according to the cooking medium used. These groups are:

• Dry method, e.g. roasting, baking, grilling and frying where air and /or fat is the cooking medium. High temperatures are used.
• Moist methods, e.g. stewing boiling, steaming and pressure cooking, where water or steam is the cooking medium. Temperatures are lower than for dry methods of cooking.
• Combination methods; these are combinations of dry and moist methods, e.g. braising.

    4.1 Dry methods of cooking

Heat is transferred to the surface of the food by convection or radiation. The interior is cooked by heat conducted through food.

    4.2 Moist methods of cooking

Heat is transferred by convection current in the cooking liquid. At low temperatures, liquid penetrates the structure of the food and cooks by convection and conduction.

4.3.Combination methods of cooking

Heat is transferred to the food first by convection currents in hot fat (a dry method), then by convection currents in the added liquid, and finally by convection and conduction as the liquid penetrates the food (moist method).

5. Effect of cooking on foods.

Cooking does lot of physicochemical change on food and causes both positive and negative effects.

5.1   Positive effects of cooking:

• The food is made safe to eat. Cooking destroys all harm full organisms. bacteria, yeast, moulds are destroyed by cooking.
• Cooking improves the keeping quality. As spoilage causing bacteria’s and enzymes got destructed.
• Digestion and absorption of foods is made easier because of structural changes e.g., the fibers in meat are tenderiderized, cellulose in fruits and vegetables are softened and starch in all cereal products is gelatinized.
• Cooking make foods become less bulky. The volume of some foods reduced by cooking e.g. cabbage and spinach. More of these foods which supply valuable nutrition that can be eaten.

The flavor of the food may be improved. In cooking, flavors are:

1. Strengthened, e.g. cooking fresh young vegetables;
2.  Blended, e.g. The combination of ingredients in a casserole;
3.  Altered, e.g.; as extractives as developed, and baked products become cooked.

• Cooking alters the texture of food which gives more variety in diet. E.g. Vegetables and fruits soften, eggs, meat and fish becomes firmer in texture as their protein coagulates. Baked products develop a characteristic texture, e.g. .cake mixture, pastries, batters, breads; biscuits get their own texture according to the nature of the ingredients used.
• Cooking enhance digestion of protein and starch by changing its physical structure.
• Cooking imports good flavor and thus enhance appetite.
• It also increase the color of certain foods especially vegetables. Sometimes it is important to maintain and enhance the natural color of food.eg, green leafy vegetables. In some other foods the color is improved by cooking, e.g., meat changes from red to an attractive brown color, baked products change from insipid yellow to golden brown color. The method of cooking affects the color changes that take place. For example, boiling, steaming, and microwave cooking do not produce such attractive colors in meat and flour mixtures as roasting or baking.
• Volatile substances are released from food during cooking: e.g. the smell of onions frying, meat roasting, and bread baking. These appetizing odors stimulate the flow of gastric juices.
• Cooking food s greatly increases variety in the diet. The ways of eating a particular food are increased, e.g. tomatoes can be eaten raw, grilled, fried and baked, or they can be as an ingredient in soups, sauces or casseroles.
•  Hot food is more acceptable, especially in cold in weather.
• It reduces the microbial load and enhances the edibility.
• Important nutrients are intentionally added while cooking when it is combined with other ingredients.
• Cooking inhibits undesirable changes in foods by inactivation the enzymes responsible for that
• Cooking eliminates the anti-nutritional factors that interferes the nutrition absorption in the body. For example goitrogenic
• Substance in cauliflower is leached out by boiling and biotin vitamin in egg which is in activated by cooking.
• Vitamin A is lost by dry method especially fat frying. So foods rich in vitamin A must be preferred to cooking on seam. Or cooking in oil in closed pan with less oxidation.

5.2 Negative effects of cooking.

• Most of the water soulful vitamins are lost in cooking especially vitamin .C
• Good quality proteins are degraded. Sometimes they lose there.
• Most of the minerals get leach our especially sodium and chloride.
• Scorching of food reduces the acceptability.
• Some time food does generate bodily harmful molecules while cooking. Like nitrosamines.

6.  Why healthy cooking in quantity food production?

Healthy cooking in food service industries  are  at spurt due to the following reasons

• Increasing health awareness among public; as people today access health and hygiene information more through medias every one look forward for the concern of healthy practices everywhere. The customers who visit a foodservice establishment expects healthy foods to be served at the table
• Double burden of diseases scenario- Growing population along with globalization induced much changes in the lifestyle of the public resulted in life threatening non communicable diseases every where both over and under nutrition issues. This induces health seeking behavior is another reason for the consumers think about healthy cooking
• Growing concern about public health-Industries also well informed about the needs and wants of the consumers that in turn developed an interest among the food service personnel to focus much on healthy cooking.

     6.  How to incorporate healthy cooking practice in quantity food service?

Healthy cooking at large scale can be attained only by adopting 2 basic principles of cooking. They are reducing / limiting the nutritional loss and enhancing the nutritive value of cooked foods. Both of these can be achieved only by getting proper education about healthy cooking.

6.1 How to control the nutritional loss during cooking.

Moist heat method always causes greater nutritional loss than dry heat method so while choosing the method of cooking it is important to know about what food contains what nutrients/ that is foods rich water soluble nutrients either to go for dry or less moisture cooking. Similarly foods rich in fat soluble nutrients better cooked in moist heat method.

• Using minimum amount of water is always good for all food items that can conserve most of the nutrients and retains better flavor and texture.
• Foods generally boiled in their skin do not leach nutrients as they are cooked in their skins. So, the best natural way of cooking vegetables with skin is the best option to retain minerals.
• Vegetables and fruits lose nutrients during peeling and chopping by exposure hence this could be controlled by cutting them before cooking.
• Grating and fine chopping of fruits and vegetables enhances more vitamin lose so avoid chopping foods very finely.
• Cooking time is also another factor cures nutrient loss. Prolonged heating of foods make lose nutrients. Repeated heating of fat contain compounds may turn in to cancer producing chemical.
• Steaming under mild pressure is always good for healthy cooking as cooking is factor, there is less degradation.
• Washing and cleaning foods thoroughly before cooking is also another way for healthy cooking as it reduces the unwanted contamination. At the same time excursive washing and soaking also leach out nutrients.
• Soaking is a good technique for cereals and pulses as it quickens the process of cooking. To avoid soaking loss of nutrients its letter to wash foods quickly and soak the washed foods.
• Addition of cooking soda for pulses sometimes enchases cooking ability and improves color. But it leaches out much of nutrients especially thiamine hence this technique is not applicable for healthy cooking. If soda is required then solacing pulses in soda added water for 20-30 minutes they wash it out by rubbing through hands.
•  Best method of retaining vitamins is addition of acid like lemon, tamarind, curd, or vinegar.
• The most sensitive vitamins during cooking are vitamin c, because of its oxidative nature. The ways to conserve this nutrient is by eating this vitamin rich fruits as whole, cooking with cover for very short time or adding lemon cooked food just before eating.

6.2.1 Germination:

It is a simple processing technique by which cereals and millets are soaked and sprouted under warm room temperature up to 4 days. The germinated spots on seeds enhance more nutrition on foods. This simple technology could be adopted by food service organizations.

Some important health benefits of germination are

• During sprouting the dormant enzymes get activated and digestibility improved.
• Availability of nutrients also improved
• Starches and proteins are converted to simple substances as germination proceeds the ratio of essential to non essential amino acids and provide more essential amino acids.
• Sprouting reduces trypsin inhibiting factor due to the release of enzyme.
• Germination it increases the maltose content.
• Sprouting increases the availability of proteins and some minerals like calcium, zinc and iron.
• Vitamins like riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, choline and biotin are also increased.
•  Vitamin C content is enhanced abnormally around 7 to 20 milligram per 100 gram of pulses. When you germinate for 30 hours the level will be at the maximum.
•  Some antioxidants like anthocyanins are also increased.

6.2.2 Fermentation:

Fermentation is a biological anabolic process by which the microorganisms are inoculated in the media intentionally and grown up. While the process of fermentation several bio chemical health favoring enzymes are produced, B complex vitamin are formed Incorporating fermented foods in to the menu o0f food service organization help the patrons enjoy healthy cuisines. Dough’s, batters and milk products are generally fermented.

6.2.2.1. Benefits of fermentation

Fermented foods contain health favouring bacteria

Fermentation makes foods preserved through the work of healthy bacteria. Fermented foods are an excellent source of probiotics. Probiotics are foods that are cultured with health favouring bacteria. Several studies support probiotics for their wide varieties health benefits.

• Bifidobacteria helps to decrease the neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis.
• Several  strains of probiotics supports to reduce the digestive complaints
•  Lactobacillus plantarum helps to reduce the inflammatory bowel, small bowel bacterial overgrowth in children,
• Lactobacillus acidophilus in animal studies has shown a preventative effect for polyps, adenomas, and colon cancer.

Fermented foods have increased nutritional value

• The fermentation process increases certain nutrients such as increased vitamin C content in pickled sauerkraut. Other traditional fermented food products show a big jump in vitamin content.

Fermented foods are more digestible

• Fermented foods are more digestible because of the probiotic content that makes the food more digestible to by breaking down hard to digest cellulose in food.
• This plays an important role in impoverished countries where young infants are fed fermented cereal gruels as a first food.

Fermented foods are safer than raw vegetables to eat

The raw vegetables can have E.coli, on fermentation process the lactic acid and the E. coli are contradicting each other and thus get inactivated. Fermentation is a simple food preparation technique by which the food products that are deficient in one or more nutrients are mutually combined during cooking to boost up more value, e.g., cereals and pulses combination is a best method of supplementation of proteins, as each one is looking one essential amino acid. It enhances the proteins value and also the taste and flavor. Also it adds novel varieties to the diet. Some interesting combination of Indian food that are best supplemented are

6.4 Fortification &Enrichment:

It is done at the industrial level for processed foods like milk products, cereals and pulse products, grain, oils and fats. Catering establishments have to make their choice according to the quality required to their customers.

7. Cooking waste recycling

While preparation and processing food lose its valuable parts along with the vital nutrients present in it. Certain techniques and methods can help reuse those discarded materials in a useful way. Here are some techniques for you to make use of food components in a best possible way

Bibliography:

1. Gregoire M.B and Spears M.C., (2006), Food Service Organizations: A Managerial and Systems Approach (6th Edition), Pearson Prentice Hall Publications.
2. Sethi,M and Malhan,S,M,( 2006),Catering Management an Integrated approach, IInd edition Wiley Eastern Limited, Mumbai.
3. Andrews,S. “Food and Beverage Service, Training Manual”, Tata Mc Graw, Hill Publishing Company Ltd, New Delhi, 2007

Web links

1. file:///C:/Users/Home/Desktop/e%20lesson%201/Hints-for-healthy-cooking_orange-1.pdf
2. file:///C:/Users/Home/Desktop/e%20lesson%201/Professional_Cooking.pdf
3. file:///C:/Users/Home/Desktop/e%20lesson%201/Food-Service-Manual-for-Health-Care-Institutions.pdf