1. Graduate School
Human Science College
Nutrition, Hospitality, and Retailing
Spring 2014
Project Proposal
“Hummus”
Sensory Evaluation of Food Production
RHIM 5310
Professor. Janice Boyce
Student names:
Ali Alalmai
Mansour Alansari
Nemer Alsaab
Due: February 27, 2014
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Introduction
Hummus is a healthy vegetarian food choice; it has been popular mainly in
the Middle East countries for long time. In those countries, it is usually served as a
cold appetizer both in restaurants and home setting. Lately, it has been popular in
the U.S. due to the immigrants coming from Middle Eastern country bringing their
culture to here.
For this project, we are going to make hummus and compare it to one of the
well-known products in the market; when we asked the shift manager at Market
Street grocery store located at 19th St in Lubbock, he mentioned that Sabra is one of
leading companies that makes hummus and according to his judgment it is the best
in the market.
We looked at Sabra’s classic hummus and we have found that their hummus
is made very close to our traditional way of making hummus except that Sabra uses
soybean oil and we use olive oil. They also use citric acid while we use lemon in the
contrast. Sabra hummus also contains potassium sorbate to maintain freshness and
natural flavors, which our hummus dose not contains. We are also going to use
organic chickpeas to see if the taste is going to differ from Sabra’s hummus, which
contains chickpeas that has been conventionally grown.
Our goal for this project is to develop hummus that is healthier, tastier, and
has shelf life that can be compared against one of the best product in the market.
Who:
To conduct this sensory study we will be working in a group of three: Ali,
Mansour, and Nemer.
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o Nemer will be the project manager who is responsible of making all the
decisions needed to complete this study and can be contacted for any
problems at 401-837-6047 nemer.alsaab@ttu.edu . He is also going to
prepare and cook the hummus that we are going to test against Sabra’s
hummus. Nemer is also going to help at the time of conducting the test
and analyzing the result of it.
o Mansour will be responsible for all the purchasing and arranging all of
the needed equipment for this study available on hand. He is also going to
work on recruiting twenty-five panelists to test our final product as well
as helping at the time of conducting the study and analyzing the result of
it.
o Ali will be responsible of the shelf life test as he is going to monitor both
our product and Sabra’s and record all the changes to them during the
seven days test. Ali will also help at the time of conducting the test and
analyzing the result of it.
What:
This project will be divided into three main steps:
o Step One: cooking and preparing the product. This step involves buying
the needed ingredients, arranging all needed equipment available, and
cooking the final product “home-style hummus”.
o Step Two: the shelf life test, which involves keeping both our hummus
and sabra’s at the required environment and recording all the changes
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occurring to them in terms of flavor changes, color changes, texture
changes, aroma changes, and mold building.
o Step Three: in this step, we select panelists and conduct the final test that
will evaluates flavor, color, texture, aroma, and consistency.
Expectations:
o Home-style Hummus will be tastier than Sabra.
o Home-style Hummus is going to be healthier by using organic ingredients.
o Home-style Hummus will be lower in cost than Sabra.
Where:
Step one which is the cooking step will take place in one of the group
members’ home. Step two, which is the shelf life evaluation step, will take place in
Ali’s house. Step three, which is the final evaluation involving twenty-five panelists,
will take place in our school food laboratory.
How:
To assure high quality of our product, we will use the HACCP, Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Points, which is an approach in food safety. This
approach will be implemented in the steps of the process by the following:
o In first stage, we are going to purchase high quality products. The
ingredients will be stored under control to prevent the hazard.
o In the second stage, we will control the products’ temperature, pH, and
humidity.
o In the third step, we are going to control the panelists by asking them to
read the consent and sign it. Also, we are going to use booths to provide
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the privacy for the panelists and avoid the interaction. Then we will offer
a fresh sample from both products to each panel.
Benefits:
Consumer Industry
1. Healthier 1. Introduce new healthier product.
2. Tastier 2. Improving food quality
3. Low cost 3. Increase organic concept
awareness
When:
In this project will follow a specific timeline, which is going to begin from
February 20th to May 1st as the following:
Date by week Project Process
Feb. 20 – Feb. 27 Proposal
Feb. 27 – Mar. 6 Purchasing the ingredients and
equipment and cooking.
Mar. 6 – Mar. 13 Shelf Life test
Mar. 13 – Mar. 27 Literature Review
Mar. 27 – Apr. 3 Conduct the test
Apr. 3 – Apr. 10 Data Analysis
Apr. 10 – Apr. 17 Results and discussion
Apr. 17 – Apr. 24 Presentation
Apr. 24 – May 1 Project’s review
