Cooking by a professional and non-professional using the same method often results in different quality of the food prepared. This paper reports the use of the power of observation during the cooking process to evaluate the cooking skills that affect the finished dish. The basic cooking method of panfrying was compared for food prepared by a professional and non-professional. A third party checked and recorded their eye movements, especially at the most important stages during cooking. Eye movement distances were also recorded by gaze-point detection based on image processing. We finally compared the cooked dishes by physical property measurement, salinity measurement and sensory testing. The results confirm that this method based on power of observation can be used to establish a new means for evaluating cooking technique.

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Japan has been experiencing an aging of its society, with elderly people thus being required to have abilities that allow them to live independently. Therefore, it is important for them to sustain their existing physical functions for as long as possible. The present study aimed to elucidate the characteristics of physical functions involved in the daily activities of elderly people. The authors measured the volume of activity undertaken by elderly women in order to investigate how they spend their daily lives and how much energy they utilize on daily activities. The subjects were 50 elderly and 30 middle-aged healthy women. A covariance structure analysis shows that the total volume of their activities are closely related to their household and outdoor activities while, on the other hand, the total volume of activity is only indirectly affected by their age. And the elderly spend more time indoor than outdoor. This demonstrates that the household work activities are major factors for the maintenance and improvement of health.

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We made a questionnaire survey with a view to clarifying the residential status quo as regards airtightness and ventilation. To be more specific, the state of ventilation in connection with cooking was mainly researched. In other words, 1) how ventilation was effected, 2) To what extent the residents were conscious of the air flow as well as smell indoors. The ventilation fan with hood for a cooking range was installed in more than 90% of the houses surveyed, and this system was highly frequently used while cooking. In many houses, however, the residue of the cooking smell had stayed after the ventilation fan was stopped, and the residents expressed unpleasantness toward the lingering smell far more than the cooking smell. Apart from the measure to counter the residue smell, there is a need to pay more attention to servicing the ventilation system as the air intake tended to be reduced in many households on account of the poorly serviced fan.

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We prepared soup stock samples from bonito and kombu, niboshi and kombu, beef and vegetable and chicken with mineral water of differing hardness. The mineral content of each was measured (distilled water, 0 mg/l ; soft water, 28 mg/l ; hard water, 303 mg/l ; and very hard water, 1,427 mg/l ), and sensory tests were conducted to evaluate the effect on stock taste of the mineral water hardness. The soup stock samples of bonito and kombu and niboshi and kombu had comparable palatability between hard water and soft water, but very hard water resulted in low preference. The calcium content of the soup stock from bonito and kombu and from niboshi and kombu prepared with hard water was 2-3 times higher than that of the equivalent soup stock prepared with soft water. Using hard water to prepare soup stock that is often used in Japanese food appears promising as a method of calcium supplementation. The palatability of beef and vegetable soup stock was most favorable when made with hard water, the calcium content of this stock prepared with hard water being 1.9 times higher than that of beef and vegetable soup stock made with soft water. Unlike the other samples of soup stock, the chicken stock prepared with very hard water was assessed as moderately palatable. Since its calcium content is more than 10 times that of soft water, very hard water has proven value in soups and one-pot dishes.

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