Sensory EvaluationChapter 6

Groups of people who evaluate food samples.

Three main groups – highly trained experts, laboratory panels, and consumer panels.

Their input has a lot of impact on whether a food makes it from the test kitchen to the shopping cart.

Sensory evaluation panels

Judge the quality of a product, using standards set by the food industry.

Involved in testing for very complex foods that require their refined, practiced skills, and sensitivity.

1) Highly trained experts

Small groups that work at a company’s laboratory.

Help develop new products and determine how a change may affect the quality of an existing product.

2) Laboratory panels

Some companies use large consumer panels to test foods outside the laboratory

For example: In grocery stores, shopping malls, and at market research firms.

Consumers tell how much they like or dislike a product or one of its flavor characteristics.

3) Consumer Panel

To get the most reliable sensory information from people, researchers must make testing experiences as uniform as possible.

For example: all samples being the same temperature.

Uniform Evaluations

Testing takes place in a controlled atmosphere.

Lighting and temperature are always kept the same.

One exception to this practice is the development of a new product, where an effort is made to serve the food as it would normally be eaten.

Minimize Distractions

Knowing how one sense can affect another, researchers may mask irrelevant characteristics.

Color differences may be hidden by using colored lights

Testers guard against the contrast effect, which can occur when a lesser-quality food is offered right after one of higher quality.

Testers need to understand human psychology in addition to food science.

Minimize bias

Testing often occurs in the morning or midafternoon, when people are most responsive and alert.

Food tasters rinse their mouths with water, between each sample.

Warm water is used to cleanse the mouth of fatty foods.

Eating a bland food, such as a cracker, also clears the taste of the previous sample.

Help evaluators use their senses to the fullest