The Ultimate Food Science Quiz

Fortified foods contain extra ingredients to boost nutritional value. Examples include iron added to breakfast cereal or iodine added to salt.

Manufacturers launch more than 100,000 new food products each year, but only about 5 percent of these will succeed.

Pasteurized milk — milk that has been heated to a high temperature to kill bacteria — must be stored in the refrigerator. Only a few commercially sterilized milk products can be stored outside of the fridge.

While raw milk might be trendy, it's 150 times more likely to cause illness than milk that has been subject to pasteurization.

In addition to sweet, salty, bitter and sour, most people have a fifth basic taste, known as savory or umami, which is associated with flavors such as soy sauce and shrimp.

When non-starchy foods like nuts or meat turn brown, the process is known as a Maillard reaction. The same process in starchy or sugary foods often results in caramelization.

Researchers expanded upon the five basic tastes in humans to include fat, which they named oleogustus.

While the debate over GMOs continues to rage, there is not a single published report of illness caused by eating genetically-modified food products.

Thanks to a combination of acidity, sugar content and naturally-occurring hydrogen peroxide, honey made thousands of years ago is still edible today.

Adults have anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 taste buds, while children often have many more.

A whopping 40 percent of packaged foods in the average grocery store are kosher. Surprisingly, a full 80 percent of those on a kosher diet are doing so for reasons beyond religion.

Thanks to homogenization, the milk fat and liquid components stay properly blended together instead of separating.

The dihydrogen monoxide myth runs rampant on the web, but this complex term is just a fancy way of saying H2O, or water.

White marks on chocolate are known as bloom and occur when fat crystals rise to the surface of the chocolate. Don't worry, though — these white marks are not dangerous and the product is still safe to eat.

Gluten is a type of protein found in wheat, barley, oats and other grains. Some people may avoid it for health reasons, but very few individuals experience serious negative effects from this plant protein.

A pigment known as lycopene gives tomatoes their rosy hue and is also known as a powerful antioxidant.

Square watermelons are produced by growing watermelons in a square glass mold. Planting their seeds will result in a standard round watermelon.

Packaging matters. People will pay more for water in a firm bottle, or coffee in a sturdy cup, than they will for the exact same product packaged in a less attractive container.

Smell is not a good indicator of listeria, E. coli and many other contaminants. A food can smell perfectly normal and still make you seriously sick.

Always cook burgers to 160 degrees F, and never use color as a sign of doneness. A full 25 percent of burgers in food studies turn fully brown before they reach a safe temperature of 160 degrees or higher.

Some food poisoning comes on in just minutes, but more serious cases can take months to show symptoms.

Pumpkin spice contains over 300 different flavors — and not one of them is pumpkin.

Freshly-slaughtered beef starts out deep purple, then turns red, then brown as it oxidizes.

If you see carmine, cochineal extract or natural red #4 on your food labels, that red hue probably came from ground insects.

Turkey actually contains no more tryptophan than other meats, including chicken. If you're nodding out on Thanksgiving, blame it on overeating, not the turkey.

People in developed countries like the U.S. gobble down 210 pounds of meat per year, while those in developing countries eat close to 66 pounds per person.

Scientists have replicated many kinds of meat in the lab, though these products are not yet widely available. Lab-grown meat may help meet soaring meat demand, which is expected to reach 100 pounds per person per year worldwide by 2030.

A staggering 1 in 9 people around the world are chronically hungry. Even in the U.S., 14 percent of families have struggled to put food on the table in the past year.

Around 20 percent of the U.S. waste stream — amounting to around 35 million tons a year — consists of food waste.

The world population is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050, from right around 6.8 billion today. Figuring out how to feed this surge of people has food scientists hard at work.