Egg Rolls Research By: Cassie Alvarado Kelsey Banks Valerie Douglass Heather Stout NFSC 320 Science of Food Fall 2008 December 10, 2008
Abstract Based on the Campus Food survey results and the opinions of the Chico State students, faculty, and local residents, our group has decided to alter the components for Wok-N-Roll egg rolls. The objective of this study is to determine how oil affects the flavor, nutritional content, and overall acceptability of egg rolls. We are striving to make the egg rolls less greasy, still taste the same, and increase their nutritional value. Since most of the complaints were due to the amount of grease, we believe by baking them and not frying them, this will diminish the problem. By baking them, they will still have a crispy outer casing, and our hopes are that the consumer will be satisfied and not be able to tell the difference. If an egg roll is baked and filled with turkey and other fresh vegetables, then it will achieve the same crispiness, texture, and taste as the original deep fried egg roll, and will be healthier and less greasy. According to the histogram of least healthy foods, Wok-N-Roll (specifically egg rolls) had been complained about as not being healthy. Although this item was ranked 4 th on the least healthy foods, we believed just changing the oil and baking the egg rolls are two simple ways that would make the egg rolls more acceptable to CSU, Chico students. We chose to produce four different treatments of egg rolls, one being deep fried in peanut oil (our control), another being deep fried in canola oil, and our other two being baked, while still using the two different oils. After weeks of research, our group has found that through the use of trained panelists and consumers, the most acceptable version of the egg rolls was the fried canola oil eggroll. This data concluded that our hypothesis was proven wrong.
The Rationale: The rationale for this experiment was introduced to us by the marketing survey that CSU Chico students completed. After reviewing the results of the marketing survey, our group chose to increase the healthiness of egg rolls served on campus. The students complained about the greasiness, oiliness, and overall taste. Therefore, this is why we chose to modify egg rolls for this experiment. The Objective: The objective of this assignment is to modify the way an egg roll is cooked and what it is filled with. Traditionally egg rolls are cooked by being deep fried and are filled with vegetables or chicken. Our group is going to try to achieve the same results and taste of a traditionally egg roll by baking the item and using tofu instead of chicken or just vegetables. The Hypothesis: If an egg roll is baked and filled with turkey and other fresh vegetables, then it will achieve the same crispiness, texture, and taste as the original deep fried egg roll, and will be healthier and less greasy. The Significance: The significance of this project was to see if consumers and trained panelists could tell the difference between fried and baked egg rolls.
Literature Review: Our group had some trouble finding research articles on egg rolls specifically. We found some articles on the properties of baking and frying food products, as well as one on obesity correlating with fried foods. The first article we chose had to do with obesity. Though it seems far from our topic of modifying egg rolls, it really isn t. The article explains how people are getting increasingly heavier because of the amount of bad foods they are consuming. One of the main foods that causes weight gain is fried foods. People are eating more and more fried foods which are loaded with fat and cholesterol and deprived of vitamins and nutrients. They are high calorie foods that fill you up with empty calories that just get turned into fat. One food that can relate to this unhealthy description on the Chico State campus is the egg rolls at the BMU Chinese food counter. If we modified the egg roll just a little, by baking it and not frying it, it would take us one step closer to making this world a healthier happier place. The next article we found was based on oil used to fry foods, and how it increases the fat intake of people s diets. There are graphs and charts showing the impact on what fat can do to cripple a person and cause them to lead unhealthy lives and get very sick. The article explains about different types of oils, and which may be healthier to use than others so that we could possibly prevent some disease from occurring at such rapid rates. Since egg rolls are fried in oil, it makes them a very unhealthy food. Though there are vegetables and protein inside the roll, it would be a lot healthier if we found an alternative way of cooking them besides in oil. Baking the egg roll would substantially reduce the amount of fat and could possibly make the snack taste better. If so, we could make a big impact on people and their fried food unhealthy eating habits.
Another article we found was on the scientific properties of oil in foods. The main topics were about the polar content should not be higher than 25% of the oil used, and this is all part of present regulations for frying foods. There are multiple studies listed in this article dealing with the frying and cooking of foods, which will help us in our study and alteration of egg rolls. One article we found was on the effects of baking and frying on corn based foods. This testing of the food products was done on rats, and it was testing for different toxicity levels. It was unfortunately the only study we could find that had to do with baking versus frying. Another article we found was about the crispy/crunchy factors in producing fried foods. The article talked about how oil uptake from the crust decreases the noise emitted when biting into the fried product. Scientists from the Netherlands did an experiment on how time and oil effects the crispy noise emitted from the fried product and found that the longer a fried product sat, the noise emitted decreased. The product would soak up more oil as it sat, therefore softening the outer shell, and decreasing the fracture noise. This is very helpful in our experiment because since we are making egg rolls, we want the outer shell to be crispy and make a crunching noise after it has been bit. By decreasing the amount of oil surrounding it, the less it will soak up, and a bigger fracture noise will be produced. One possible method is to set the newly cooked eggrolls on paper towels to decrease the amount of grease surrounding it, therefore decreasing the amount of oil soaked into the eggroll shell. We are baking our eggrolls, so we want to try to make them as crispy as possible. All of this research and information will help us modify our egg rolls. Hopefully we will be able to modify them to make them taste the same, as well as making them healthier and less greasy. All of this research will be helpful in making our product better and more readily accepted by the campus community.
Independent Variable: Our independent variable was the acceptability of egg rolls. We chose this as our independent variable because the consumer accepting the eight attributes we chose was the main point of this experiment. Dependent Variable: Our two dependent variables were the types of oil used and the methods of cooking. We chose these dependent variables because consumers wanted a healthier product. Therefore, changing the type of oil would accomplish that. When it comes to the cooking methods of egg rolls, the traditional method is deep frying and our experiment was to see if baking the egg rolls could be substituted. Treatments: Deep fried Deep fried Baked Baked peanut oil canola oil peanut oil canola oil Greasy Oily Flaky Crispy Moisture Chewy Color Hardness
Nutritional Differences: There were four different treatments that were done in this experiment. Deep fried peanut Deep fried canola Baked peanut Baked canola Calories 367 315 262 205 Fat 24.5 g 20 g 13 g 9 g Cholesterol 44 mg 40 mg 20 mg 15 mg Protein 13.7 g 10 g 8 g 6 g Procedure of Production: Every week we were consistent in the tasks performed. Kelsey was responsible for cleaning, peeling, grating, and weighing the carrots. Valerie was responsible for cleaning, chopping, and weighing the cabbage. Heather was responsible for cooking the ground turkey to the proper temperature. Cassie was responsible for cleaning, peeling, and finely grating the ginger. After everything was mixed together in the skillet, it was cooled to room temperature. At that time, all four of the group members consistently measured out the perfect portion into the egg roll wraps. For the deep fried egg rolls, the oils were heated to the desired temperature. When it came to the baked egg rolls, they were baked for ten minutes and then broiled for an additional ten minutes, being rotated every two minutes. The egg rolls were then served to the trained panelists. Descriptive Analysis: Every week, the egg rolls were prepared the exact same way as the week prior. The four different egg rolls were cut into thirds and then randomly numbered and placed on a paper plate
that was divided into four sections. At this time, the trained panelists were in a red lit room where they were unable to see visual differences among the four samples. The trained panelists were asked to try all four samples and rate them using a hedonic scale ranked from not at all to very in regards to the eight attributes that were being tested. At the end of each testing, the results were measured and averages were calculated after every week of testing. Here is an example of one week s calculations: Canola: fried Canola: baked Peanut: fried Peanut: baked Oily 4.9 5.1 5.6 5.8 Chewy 5.1 7 5.6 5.8 Flaky 5.7 4.1 5 3.3 Moistness 5 6.5 6 6.8 Greasy 5 5 6.6 5.8 Hardness 5.6 3.7 5.2 3.2 Color 7.8 3.1 6.8 2.9
Data and Results: Egg Roll Hedonic Test Data Sample 173 Sample 245 Sample 563 Sample 736 Like Extremely (9) 1 2 1 1 Key Like Very Much (8) 0 3 4 13 Sample 173 = Peanut Baked Like Moderately (7) 13 11 4 12 Sample 245 = Peanut Fried Like Slightly (6) 12 10 11 10 Sample 563 = Canola Baked Neither Like nor Dislike (5) 6 2 8 1 Dislike Slightly (4) 5 4 8 1 Dislike Moderately (3) 2 5 5 0 Dislike Very Much (2) 2 4 0 3 Dislike Extremely (1) 0 0 0 0 Total 41 41 41 41 Average Score 5.65 5.56 5.41 6.63 Sample 736 = Canola Fried Males 14 % Males 34% Females 22 % Females 54% No Response 5 Total 41 % No Response 12% For our hedonic testing, we tripled the recipe. We had 41 consumers try our egg rolls and rank them from 1-9. We had four different samples on each plate: egg roll baked and brushed with peanut oil, egg roll fried in peanut oil, egg roll baked and brushed with canola oil, and an egg roll fried in peanut oil. Each consumer also received a glass of water. There were a total of 41 consumers, 14 being males and 22 being females. 5 consumers did not report their sex. The average score that was the highest was 6.63 and that was from the
sample of an egg roll fried in canola oil. The others ranged from a 5.41-5.65, all very close in average. The sample of the egg roll brushed and baked with canola oil was the least popular. For our Quantitative Data Analysis (QDA), we chose seven different attributes to help our group effectively modify our eggrolls. The figure above is called a spider web diagram that shows how each of the different attributes compare to each of the variables. Type of Egg Roll Baked Peanut Egg Roll Fried Peanut Egg Roll Baked Canola Egg Roll Fried Canola Egg Roll Preference (1) Oily (2) Chewy (3) Flaky (4) Moistness (5) Greasy (6) Hardness (7) Color (8) 5.7± 1.5 a 5.8± 2.0 a 6.5± 1.9 a 3.3 ± 1.8 a 6.8± 1.5 a 5.8± 2.4 a 3.2 ± 2.9 ± 1.57 a 1.2 a a 5.6 ± 1.9 5.7± 2.0 a 5.6± 1.4 a 5 ± 2.3 a a.6.6 ± 1.1 5.2 ± 2.1 6.8 ± 6± 1.9 a bd 1.0 bd 5.4± 1.6 a 5.2± 0.9 a 7.0± 0.7 a 4.1± 2.1 a 6.5± 1.1 a a 3.7 ± 1.6 3.1 ± 5 ± 1.4 abc 1.2 ac 6.7± 1.5 b 4.9± 1.3 a 5 ± 1.8 a 5.7± 1.5 a a 5.1 ± 1.4 5.3± 1.4 a 5.6 ± 1.6 d 7.8 ± 0.8 d (1) Preference based on Hedonic Scale (1 = Dislike very much, 9 = Like Very Much) (2-8) Preference based on 1-9 scale (1=Not at all, 9=Very)
This table represents the consumer testing that was conducted in the lab. This table represents the statistical differences between the egg roll attributes. We have performed an ANOVA test on each attribute, and only two of them showed that there was a statistical difference (hardness and color). With these two sets of data from the ANOVA test, we then performed T-tests and found that there was a significant difference. Comparison with Hypothesis: Through our research and experimentation, it is evident from our tables that there is only a significant difference in hardness and color of the egg rolls. It is also evident that our hypothesis was proven wrong because the consumers and trained panelists still preferred the fried egg roll and not the healthiest version. Compare and Contrast Literature Studies to our own: Due to the lack of literature studies on egg rolls, we only focused on one article that was based on crispiness and tenderness of fried foods. We used this knowledge gained when serving our egg rolls, because this article focused on the timeliness of serving egg rolls, and how the longer an egg roll sits after being fried, the less crispy it will be. We made sure to serve our egg rolls promptly after baking or frying them. We also found that when we did this, the acceptance of our egg rolls by consumers increased. Limitations: 1. We did not have a consistent recipe based on the feedback from panelists. We altered the recipe to make the egg rolls more acceptable.
2. We found this recipe on-line because we were unable to obtain the Wok-n-Roll s egg roll recipe. 3. Whitney Hall only serves egg rolls twice a year. Their egg rolls are premade and frozen. 4. Our sample size was small. 5. A vegetarian version was not offered. Conclusions and Recommendations: According to the consumers, the fried Canola Oil egg roll were the most preferred out of the four different variations. The healthiest option, baked egg rolls, were the least preferred by the consumers and trained panelists. Further Research Recommendations and Changes that would be made: If further research is to be done, we recommend that a more satisfying recipe is used. We received feedback from our trained panelists stating that a more flavorful and tasty recipe be used. Another factor in the recipe is that we would have chosen one that was less temperature/time sensitive. Also, we had a recommendation to find a way to make the baked egg rolls crunchier. We also recommend that a vegetarian option be prepared during consumer testing to allow all consumers to participate. We had numerous consumers not try our egg rolls because they contained meat, which led to a decreased sample size. Bottom Line: The bottom line is that consumers prefer fried products over baked products, even though they requested a healthier option in the market research survey.
References www.allrecipes.com Jackson, Lauren S., et al. "Effects of Baking and Frying on the Fumonisin B1 Content of Cornbased Foods." Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 45.12 (Dec. 1997): 4800-4805. Biological Abstracts 1969 - Present. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 15 Sep. 2008 https://mantis.csuchico.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =boh&an=bacd199800086540&site=ehost-live Pennybacker, Mindy. "Reducing "Globesity" Begin at Home." World Watch 18.5 (Sep. 2005): 15-15. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 15 Sep. 2008 https://mantis.csuchico.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =aph&an=19934379&site=ehost-live Marmesat, Susana, et al. "Quality of Used Frying Fats and Oils: Comparison of Rapid Tests based on Chemical and Physical Oil Properties." International Journal of Food Science & Technology 42.5 (May 2007): 601-608. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 15 Sep. 2008 https://mantis.csuchico.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =aph&an=24719725&site=ehost-live Minihane, Anne M., and Janice I. Harland.. "Impact of Oil used by the Frying Industry on Population Fat Intake." Critical Reviews in Food Science & Nutrition 47.3 (Apr. 2007): 287-297.EBSCO. https://mantis.csuchico.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =aph&an=24404004&site=ehost-live Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, Wageningen, The Netherlands Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands c Friesland Foods Corporate Research, Harderwijkerstraat 41006, 7418 BA Deventer, The Netherlands