ast food chains have come under severe criticism recently for being a major contributing factor to obesity among our country’s youth. The criticism centers around the fact that such sandwiches have very little nutritive value while containing excessive levels of fats and empty calories.
In an attempt to improve the eating habits of our nation, programs such as ‘Five-A-Day’ stress the importance of eating five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily as a means of reducing health risks and obesity.
Although three major vegetables are contained on most fast food sandwiches such as hamburgers (lettuce, tomatoes, and onions) the vegetable used in the greatest volume, lettuce, is known to be a low nutritional quality vegetable. Consequently, the replacement or blending of lettuce with a more nutritious leafy green vegetable such as spinach would enhance the nutritive value of fast food sandwiches. As a result, scientists at Texas A&M University conducted a study, funded by the Wintergarden Spinach Producer’s Board, to determine if spinach would be an acceptable candidate for replacing or blending with lettuce on sandwiches.
The objectives of the study were to examine the potential consumer acceptance as reflected in the sensory characteristics of two Subway sandwiches, the ‘Veggie’ and the “Turkey’, that contained one of five combinations of shredded iceberg lettuce and savoy spinach. These sandwiches were chosen because the Veggie would offer the greatest opportunity for spinach to impact flavor, and turkey meat is considered to have a minimal potential to mask lettuce or spinach flavors. The sandwiches evaluated contained 1.5 oz of either 100 percent spinach; 25 percent lettuce and 75 percent spinach; 50 percent lettuce and 50 percent spinach; 75 percent lettuce and 25 percent spinach; and, 100 percent lettuce. Six slices of turkey meat were applied to the turkey sandwiches. In addition, six slices of tomato were included on all sandwiches.
The sandwiches were professionally prepared by Subway personnel in one of their College Station locations. Sensory evaluations were conducted in the Texas A&M University Sensory Testing Laboratory by a professionally trained taste panel housed in the Department of Animal Science. Prior to sandwich taste testing, a set of flavor attributes to reflect spinach flavor were determined by the panel. Blind tasting of an appropriate quantity of each sandwich combination was utilized for sensory evaluation.
The findings of this study indicated that Veggie sandwiches with 100 percent lettuce generally had lower levels of green/grassy, nutty/wet and nutty flavor aromatics, tended to be less astringent, and were not as bitter and earthy after tasting. However, while 100 percent spinach and the 25 percent lettuce 75 percent spinach treatments tended to be the highest in these attributes, the increases were minimal and the resulting flavors were not found to be objectionable to the panel members. Non-significant differences in the flavor parameters were noted for the Turkey sandwiches. As a result, the inclusion of spinach at any percentage did not appreciably alter the flavor of the these sandwiches.
Based on these results, it can be concluded that spinach has the potential to be an acceptable blend with or replacement for lettuce on fast food sandwiches. Adoption of spinach by the fast food industry would enhance the overall nutritive value of their sandwiches and have a huge impact on the fresh market spinach industry. Further efforts are needed to convince a major fast food chain to test market this concept.
