Scientist and His Associates Have a Nose for Finding Out Just What People Like to Eat

You might wonder why Fred Caporaso uses a turtle to learn more about people’s likes and dislikes about food.

Actually, it has to do with the turtle’s amazing sense of smell.

“My work as a food scientist includes studying the sense of smell to evaluate food products,” he said, “and that includes talking to people to learn why they like certain foods.”

He said that poses a problem because many Southern Californians are “food wackos” who seem willing to eat just about anything.

But, he said, on a day-to-day basis, the flavor of a food product is 80% aroma. “Try to taste something by holding your nose,” said Caporaso. “You would have a lot of trouble telling what you’re eating.”

Caporaso said his fresh water turtle from South America--called a matamata and one of about 40 turtles of various sizes living in his backyard--has an unparalleled sense of smell, one of the senses Caporaso explores as a food scientist at Chapman College.

“The turtle can rest in the murkiest water, and with his keen sense of smell capture a passing fish,” he said. In addition, he said, turtles can swim under water for thousands of miles and locate a breeding ground with their sense of smell.

Despite the “food wackos,” many people are showing greater interest in the food they eat, according to Caporaso, chairman of the Chapman College food science and nutrition department. There is a growing need for food scientists to provide quality assurance for new food products and to develop programs to keep food stable and nutritious, he said.

That work involves factors from the time of harvest all the way to consumption, he said, and the work is especially important in Southern California because it has a heavy concentration of food suppliers.

He said it’s difficult to get qualified food people to move to Southern California because of high housing prices. “The starting salary (for food scientists) runs from $18,000 to $26,000, and there’s a shortage of people qualified for the jobs,” he said.

Another problem, he said, is that the food science major is an unknown entity to high school counselors, the people who help students decide on a college course.

Caporaso praised his turtles for more than their assistance with his research. “They’re easy pets to care for, don’t bark, shed or bite the neighbor’s kid,” he said.

The language gets so bad at times that Wanda Hooper, 39, of Fullerton has to turn off her curling iron.

The aerospace worker, mother of four children, said the language is enough to make her blush “and I’m no prude by a long shot.”

She said the raunchy language between a man and woman startled her when it came through her curling iron and forced her to turn off the television her grandson was watching.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” she said.

Neighbor Stephanie Gonzales said she “can’t even watch the ‘Cosby Show’ in peace.”

The Federal Communications Commission said that the abusive language in the Fullerton neighborhood most likely comes from an illegal high-power operation of a citizens’ band radio and that it would be about three years before they could have someone look into it.

The FCC said 80,000 complaints were logged last year.

Dolores Montoya, 64, has a simple description of herself: “I’m just an ordinary mother and housewife.”

Perhaps so, but besides caring for her husband David Montoya, 64, and raising two sons, she has spent 30 years as a volunteer librarian and assistant in Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in La Habra.

These days she volunteers once a week in the 10,000-volume library, but in her early days with the church she toiled daily for eight hours, according to librarian Sister Rita Trudell, who called Montoya’s 30 years of volunteering “extraordinary.”

When she started doing the work, Montoya said, “volunteering helped get your children in the parochial school,” but she didn’t think the volunteer work would last until her children were married and she was a grandmother.

“She loves the library,” Sister Rita said.

Acknowledgments--David Muir, 25, of Anaheim, who helped to develop a breathing device that enables patients to speak normally, was honored with a special award by the Orange County chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Muir is a quadriplegic.