Statistics for Food Scientists

Making Sense of the Numbers

Frank Rossi, Victor Mirtchev

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780124171909
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Scienze dell'alimentazione

The practical approached championed in this book have led to increasing the quality on many successful products through providing a better understanding of consumer needs, current product and process performance and a desired future state. In 2009, Frank Rossi and Viktor Mirtchev brought their practical statistical thinking forward and created the course "Statistics for Food Scientists". The intent of the course was to help product and process developers increase the probability of their project's success through the incorporation of practical statistical thinking in their challenges. The course has since grown and has become the basis of this book.

• Presents detailed descriptions of statistical concepts and commonly used statistical tools to better analyze data and interpret results
• Demonstrates thorough examples and specific practical problems of what food scientists face in their work and how the tools of statistics can help them to make more informed decisions
• Provides information to show how statistical tools are applied to improve research results, enhance product quality, and promote overall product development

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

“Maria accepted the job offer, and she will be joining your team in two weeks!” Joan had spent 7 months on a quest to find a food scientist, and this short voicemail from Human Resources put an end to his efforts. He was so excited that he stepped out of his office to share the great news with Steve, a senior food scientist, working for him. Steve had also enjoyed meeting Maria and shared Joan's high opinion of her from the recent university job fair.

Keywords

Analytical approach; Food science; Job offer; Research and development; Statistics

“Maria accepted the job offer, and she will be joining your team in two weeks!” Joan had spent 7 months on a quest to find a food scientist, and this short voicemail from Human Resources put an end to his efforts. He was so excited that he stepped out of his office to share the great news with Steve, a senior food scientist, working for him. Steve had also enjoyed meeting Maria and shared Joan's high opinion of her from the recent university job fair.

Maria, a recent graduate holding a Master's degree in food science, is a bright, young professional who is not only excited, she has already posted the good news on Facebook and Twitter and has texted all of her friends about her decision to join the Ultimate BBQ company.

“Help is on the way,” said Joan, jokingly, to Steve. “Maria has accepted, and her strong critical thinking and analytical skills will help us improve the quality of our BBQ sauce.”

Steve: “BBQ!” BBQ sauce has been one of the company's core products, and it has been around for over 100 years. Sadly, in the most recent years, it has lost market share due to product quality degradation, a trend that the company hopes to reverse quickly to maintain a market leading position. “Will Maria be equipped for such a big first project?”

Joan: “I agree with you Steve, and that is why I would like to ask you to be Maria's manager. Help her understand the complex process of making BBQ sauce, the similarities between our pilot plant and plant production, and introduce her to the rest of the team. As you know ‘it takes a village’ to make good BBQ.”

“There have been a lot of recent complaints indicating that our BBQ sauce is not thick enough. Our consumers care deeply about our product. They have given us a second chance through the gift of feedback, and now we owe it to them. Steve, I cannot think of a better person than you not only to pass on a lot of BBQ sauce institutional knowledge to Maria, but also to help her to focus on the areas that need the most attention. You have worked closely with James in Marketing Research to understand the specifics of the consumers' feedback from the BBQ users' focus group sessions.”

Steve: “I would love to help Maria. Since this will be a highly analytical project, I'll introduce her to Chad in Analytical Sciences, Louise in Quality, and the other subject matter experts that she will need to work closely with. I'll also organize a visit to both of our BBQ plants after she is situated in the Research and Development center.”

In the spirit of good planning and to better prepare for a successful relationship with her, Steve decides to venture into the virtual space for traces of Maria. He revisits her LinkedIn profile and learns from it that Maria relishes challenges, never gives up, and most of all she enjoys working on teams. She seems to have some data analysis skills that Steve hopes he can learn from. At the same time, her profile suggests that she is interested in learning more about process capability analysis, which has been an area of focus for Steve in recent years. As Steve prepares to weave in the relationship between product concepts and analytical approaches, he realizes that he will need the help of others to enable Maria to see deeply into what is best for BBQ sauce.

Steve wants to help Maria try new approaches and statistical practices. Only after she sees some successes will she add them into her repertoire of statistical tools. These will enable her to develop critical practices to shape thought processes and transform the way scientists approach everyday quality and product development challenges. These practices will be relevant to many challenges that food scientists face, and Steve wants Maria to have a successful start into her corporate career. Now, onto Day 1…

Chapter 2

Descriptive Statistics and Graphical Analysis

Abstract

Maria is asked to compare the viscosities from two production lines and uses descriptive statistics and graphs to make a determination.

Keywords

Descriptive Statistics; Histogram; Kurtosis; Mean; Median; Mode; Range; Skewness; Standard deviation; Time sequence plot; Variance

One of the first objectives for Maria as a new employee is to develop an understanding of the BBQ sauce manufacturing process. Fortunately, the research and development center where she works is part of a larger facility that includes the main BBQ sauce production facility for her company. Steve arranges for her to visit the production facility in her second week. Lisa, the plant manager, will give her a tour.

Maria arrives at the facility a few minutes before the meeting is scheduled. Though only a 5-min walk from the main office building, she feels that she has entered another world. As she waits for Lisa to meet her, she can see the busy activity through the glass walls of the waiting room—bottles of sauce rattling down lines, forklifts moving pallets of materials, uniformed workers in hairnets, earplugs, and safety glasses bustling about. What a change from the quiet research labs where she spent her first week at her desk and in meetings!

When Lisa arrives, Maria is surprised to find that she appears to be quite young for someone who has responsibilities for a manufacturing facility. Short, trim, and completely unadorned, Lisa displays a confident manner.

“We are very happy to have you on board Maria,” Lisa says as she vigorously shakes Maria's hand. “We were so excited when you accepted the position with us. Like you, I started in research right out of school. I never would have thought I would manage production one day.”

“I see you are already wearing your safety shoes and lab coat. You will also need to remove all of your jewelry before we enter the plant,” Lisa says as she guides Maria to a room with lockers and a dispensary for the gear required for entering the facility. She gives a hairnet and a set of earplugs to Maria and runs down a list of safety rules for the tour. “Keep your hands away from most everything and stay within the yellow lines on the floor and you will be fine,” Lisa concludes.

When she enters the production floor, Maria is surprised at the noise level. Behind the glass in the waiting room, she saw the high level of activity, but she was unprepared for the accompanying noise.

“We do a lot of shouting around here,” Lisa says as they start walking. “With the noise and the earplugs there is no other way!”

The next hour is a blur for Maria, as she encounters the many steps of BBQ sauce production. Ingredients arrive at a receiving dock and are moved by forklift to an internal storage facility within the plan...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Descriptive Statistics and Graphical Analysis
• Chapter 3. Hypothesis Testing
• Chapter 4. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• Chapter 5. Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA)
• Chapter 6. Regression and Correlation
• Chapter 7. Statistical Process Control (SPC)
• Chapter 8. Sampling
• Chapter 9. Process Capability
• Chapter 10. Design of Experiments Foundation
• Chapter 11. Screening Experimental Designs
• Chapter 12. Response Surface (Optimization) Experimental Designs
• Chapter 13. Mixture Experimental Design
• Chapter 14. Wrapping It All Up!
• Index