Sensory Evaluation is defined as a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyze and interpret sensations to those characteristics of food and materials as they are perceived by the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.
Food processing pioneer Wilbur A. Gould, Consultant to the Food Industries, briefly described the term sensory as “Examination by smelling, feeling, tasting and/or seeing (appearance)”. Sensory evaluation has proven valuable over the years. According to FIF, sensory evaluation can be used by companies to improve the sensory quality of a product or to ensure inter-batch consistency; understand the sensory characteristics of their products and how they influence consumer preferences; understand how their product performs against competitors’ products in relation to consumer perceptions and/or sensory characteristics; determine whether or not consumers can detect differences between products or changes in the product due to recipe modifications; influence product listings with retailers by presenting independent research demonstrating that the company has a greater understanding of their product’s profile and consumers; and assist in the determination of the shelf life of products (Dean Duxbury, May 2005, Vol. 59, No. 5).
Herbert Stone, President of Tragon Corp., said. “It is a powerful resource for understanding the similarities and differences among products, whether those products are competition, new formulations, or a comparison of alternative processing effects. Sensory resources are cost effective, providing precise information quickly, and they serve as a bridge between the technical and consumer worlds (Dean Duxbury, May 2005, Vol. 59, No. 5). Also without appropriate sensory analysis, there is a high risk of market failure.
Some examples of sensory evaluation methods useful for food and non-food products include product profiling through quantitative descriptive analysis, ranking for preference, triangle test for difference and hedonic rating scale for product acceptability measurement.............
